Why does it take fourteen days to recover bail money?
Dear Editor, During December last year one of my friends was unjustly charged by a member of the City Constabulary with a very minor traffic offence. He was placed on $8,000.00 bail to attend the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. He appeared before a Magistrate who gave a reprimand and discharged the charge. He told me that since then he made several contacts with the City Constabulary in an effort to get back his bail money, but without success. He said that if he pursues the matter personally it will cost him $64,000.00 in transportation to get back $8,000.00. He explained that he has to pay $32,000.00 to travel from the interior where he resides and back home just to make an application for his money lodged as bail. After fourteen working days he is required to travel back to Georgetown to collect his money if it is available. This second travel process to Georgetown and back to the interior will cost him an additional $32,000.00. As a result he authorised me in writing to uplift the money.
I thought that it would have been a simple task to do so. I was in for a big surprise. I tendered the written authorisation signed by the bailor and two witnesses to members of the City Constabulary. They scrutinised the document more closely than SOCU anti-money laundering investigators would have done and asked me some irrelevant questions without waiting for answers: Why did the man not come himself? Why only now do you come? How we can be sure that this is the man and witnesses’ signature? Who is he to you? Do you have an affidavit signed by a JP? Do you have his ID card? Throughout all the questioning I remained silent. I was forced to approach a senior officer of the constabulary. She was extremely polite but could not aid the process as it appears as though it was embedded in Mazaruni granite. It is inflexible.
Here is the process. The prosecutor who is not readily available is required to endorse the bail receipt stating that the case was concluded and that the money can be returned to the owner. Thereafter, a rank has to check several piles of disposed case jackets to find the one under review. The jacket is then taken to the administrative officer who is not easy to contact. After examining the documents and case jacket he would approve the refund of the money. However, the person has to wait for fourteen mandatory working days before he/she can be refunded the money.
The Guyana Police Force have a similar procedure to uplift bail lodged at the Police Finance Office. Collect your money fourteen days after submitting your documents. I understand that it is equally time consuming and frustrating to recover money lodged as bail from the Magistrates’ Court after the conclusion of a case.
This current system of refunding bail has the potential to open the floodgates for unethical behaviour and corrupt practices. A bailer who urgently needs his money to be refunded to him may be tempted to offer a person in authority an inducement to collect it before the fourteen days period of waiting is over, and that person may yield to temptation. On the other side of the coin those in authority may demand something for the quick release of money and the other party who is desperate for the cash will succumb to the unlawful demand. We are not talking about $8,000.00 but millions of dollars. If it has not happened or it is not happening it will happen. Somewhere in the bible it is written that the love of money is the root of all evil. This system may lead to some persons in authority quickly sliding down what Sherman calls the slippery slope of corruption.
Coincidentally it takes five working days to obtain a new Guyana passport when the waiting period used to be weeks or months in some instances. Quite recently, I read a letter in the press where a man congratulated members of the Immigration Department for taking twenty minutes to expedite his application to renew a passport. I also join in congratulating them on their efficiency.
Should we not learn some lessons from the Immigration Department. In this modern and technological age why does it take fourteen agonising working days to uplift bail money after submitting the required documents?
However, all is not lost. I believe that if those in authority look at the spirit of their procedure, think outside of the box and connect the dots, a faster and more transparent system to refund bail money will emerge, thus eliminating the temptation of unethical and corrupt practice in refunding bail money. Yours faithfully Clinton Conway Assistant Commissioner of Police (Retired)