Suggestion to scrap SARA ‘ridiculous’ - Heath-Retmeyer

Deputy Director of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) Aubrey HeathRetmeyer has frowned upon the suggestion that the organisation should be scrapped and its functions undertaken by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

“It’s ridiculous because we are doing two distinctly different functions. SOCU has to grapple with anti-money laundering and a slew of crimes along that line. SARA, we are developing our capacity and skills to deal with recovery through civil procedures,” Heath-Retmeyer told Stabroek News during a recent interview.

SARA’s Director, Professor Clive Thomas, also expressed a similar view.

This suggestion was expressed by Ram & McRae in its 2019 Budget Review. The review was published in the December 1, 2018 edition of the Stabroek News.

The accounting firm, it its publication which is done annually, said that the agency was budgeted to receive $285 million, an increase of $25 million or 9.6%, from the $260 million received in 2018. It was stated that like many other public bodies, “SARA appears to have breached the law in respect of the duty to have its annual plan tabled in the National Assembly and the prerequisite steps, to lay a Code of Practice and to have its report filed in the National Assembly.”

Ram & McRae charged that the agency has clearly “failed to live up to the hype and fanfare” which accompanied its establishment when it was expected to recover several billions of state assets each year.

“The Government may wish to consider scrapping this Agency altogether and assigning its functions and responsibilities to the SOCU of the Guyana Police Force,” the review said. Heath-Retmeyer, in his response, said that this suggestion was not a well-thought-out idea. He pointed out that the agencies require two totally different sets of skills and any one agency will

not be able to “handle both of those things except if they are totally reconfigured. So the idea of collapsing one and putting it under the other is just ridiculous.”

Thomas, meanwhile, referring to the application to the High Court to have the SARA scrapped, highlighted the challenge to its very existence. “So we are dealing with pretty potent adversaries,” he stressed.

The case was filed by Attorney Devindra Kissoon on behalf of citizens’ rights activist Ramon Gaskin in July last year. Attorney General Basil Williams, SARA and Thomas are listed as the respondents. It is being heard by Chief Justice (ag) Roxane GeorgeWiltshire SC.