Georgetown: The State Asset Recovery Unit set up by the Government, is making significant progress in recovering assets of the state. This is according to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
The Minister who was at the time updating media operatives on the various initiatives implemented by Government which are aimed at creating a more accountable and transparent public system, explained that the unit which is headed by Presidential Advisor, Professor Clive Thomas, was engaged in a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work. This has resulted in the recovery of several assets that were held by individuals.
“The important thing is that we recover those assets, we are going to go after those persons who have them but I am advised that it is better that we take certain steps before you actually publicized the names and the companies that are involved,” Minster Harmon said. He, however, added that there are certain individuals and a company that have been written to about the actual collecting of fuel by vehicles that did not belong to the state. “There is one company that we attempted to serve documentation, only to discover that the company had shut up shops. By the time we got to the registered office of the company they had moved to some other location,” the Minister of State reported.
According to the minister, the Government’s resolve to recover state assets and to penalize those found guilty remains sharp and its operations have widened. “But now we are more fortified, in fact we are now operating on a wider scale…in relation to the inter-agency collaboration on crime, we are having a greater level of coordination by agencies of the state in this regard, we are now in office, it’s the middle of July and you would recall that our elections was only in May but in that short space of time we have benefitted from a wide level, a wide degree of consultation and information from agencies that we have not had access to initially”, he said.
The minister explained that things are now much clearer to the administration and it is in a better position to take public action. “The work which we are doing to recover these assets is not just collecting it but strengthening the institutional arrangements.”
Government, since its ascension to office has indicated its intention to create a transparent and accountable functioning public system. It has so far implemented several initiatives in this regard one of which includes audits of several key state agencies.
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