Georgetown: The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is of the view that all assets or resources belonging to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana that were unlawfully or criminally transferred to any beneficiary must be recovered and returned to the State once such unlawful transactions become known and criminal convictions obtained, according to the commission in a press missive.
Below is an extract from the statement:
However, the Private Sector Commission is of the view that the current draft State Asset Recovery Bill 2016 (SARA Bill) is deeply flawed and inconsistent with many of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Guyana. The PSC has obtained legal representation and will be making known its objections to the SARA Bill 2016 to the Attorney General and to members of the Legislature.
The SARA Bill 2016 is not a good signal to investors who will require access to state resources such as land, licences, access rights etc. as the Bill provides opportunities for legitimate investors to be harassed and politically victimized.
The Bill has been drafted from the perspective that the Government of Guyana does not know what it owns or what the State has lost over the years and as such it provides all-encompassing investigative and surveillance powers to the Director and Staff of the Agency to snoop around into private accounts and financial records of citizens to determine what assets of the State were lost and need to be recovered. This is a complete affront to the fundamental rights of citizens and if such powers are granted they can be used to marginalize, suppress and take advantage of vulnerable members of the population through political intimidation.
The PSC is extremely concerned that the powers provided to the Director of SARA will blur the lines of separation of functions of the Executive and the Judiciary. The PSC questions the need for Ministers to designate to the Director and Staff of SARA, as they see fit, the power of a revenue or customs officer, of a police officer and immigration officer rather than requesting collaboration and coordination of efforts amongst these agencies.
The PSC believes that the SARA Bill is premature and redundant since many of the intelligence gathering mechanism have already been enacted in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Legislation and included in the mandate of the Integrity Commission, both of which have not been fully functional to date.
The PSC is calling on the Executive and Members of the Legislature of our Country to completely reexamine the dangers to civil liberties modelled by this Bill in the context of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
