Some have declared SOCU a failure

Oct 04, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
I was amused to hear British High Commissioner to Guyana. Mr. Greg Quinn speak of training to ‘improve’ the quality of DPP prosecutions.
Mr. Quinn and the UK’s paid advisor to the Special Organized Crime Unit of the GPF, Sam Sittlington, have actively participated in the perversion of SOCU’s mandate to assist the Financial Intelligence Unit in seeking out money launderers, drug dealers and unexplainable wealth in our society.
Sittlington was caught actively participating in SOCU operations in March 2017 that targeted members of the political opposition. Following the first day of that operation, High Commissioner Quinn and members of his staff joined Minister of National Security , Hon. Khemraj Ramjattan, SOCU officials and Sittlington at the Oasis Café for ‘celebratory’ drinks on March 9, 2017.
Now, as those thinly disguised fabricated charges are failing for lack of evidence, the UK men are claiming that lack of training coupled with poor and ineffective coordination among state agencies are responsible for those failures.
The participants (and our nation) at the State Assets Recovery and Anti-Money Laundering training exercise, at the Police Officer’s Training Academy on October 2 would have been better served by advice to base charges on evidence and not directions of local or foreign political powers.
The discerning public knows well of the UK’s history of harmful interference in Guyana’s internal affairs and has not failed to notice that SOCU’S “Pradoville 2” investigation is used as a convenient distraction whenever APNU+AFC bungles, be it in a parking lot in Providence or contract negotiations in Texas.
Organizations such as SOCU form an important part of Guyana’s fight against corruption and money laundering, High Commissioner Quinn’s close involvement and assistance by way of continued support of Sittlington have diluted its effectiveness and public confidence in its integrity.
SOCU has an enormous budget, with a large staffing component; hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent to pursue political persecutions. SOCU is yet to secure a criminal or other conviction to justify this level of funding.
Sam Sittlington now sits in back rooms and heavily tinted vehicles during SOCU operations, and can now claim he is only an ‘advisor’. The beleaguered agency must shake off this malodorous foreign infection and make a serious attempt to fulfill its important mandate and regain respect and integrity lost.
The ‘massas’ have already declared them (SOCU) a failure. Who in the agency will find the courage to lead the reform and plot a pathway to success?
Respectfully
Robin Singh