Former SOCU forensic analyst came highly recommended - Ramjattan
Sheronie James, who resigned from the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) last month amidst accusations that she was unqualified, was hired by the Ministry of Public Security after being highly recommended and producing certificates which appeared “genuine,” Minister Khemraj Ramjattan said yesterday.
“Let’s not get there. It is some senior people that recommended her,” Ramjattan said when asked who recommended the woman for the job.
He addressed numerous questions on the circumstances which led to the woman’s resignation shortly after a Community Policing Group (CPG) anniversary press conference at his office yesterday.
James, a then Special Superintendent and forensic analyst, opted to resign after refusing to submit her credentials to Ramjattan upon request. The minister explained yesterday that he had personally asked the woman for “certain” documents and she refused to hand them over, saying that “she couldn’t provide it.”
The woman’s qualification came under the microscope in a court case.
In July last year, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, upon the completion of a voir dire in the trial of eight members of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) Board of Directors, ruled that James could not be deemed an expert in the field of forensic analysis as she did not have the academic qualifications. James was required to have an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification.
Following this and James’ eventual resignation, questions were raised about who hired her. Ramjattan, when asked yesterday, acknowledged that it was his ministry that hired the woman following an interview by a panel comprising the Head of SOCU Sydney James and others. Ramjattan did not name the other members of the interviewing panel nor the “senior people.”
He went on to explain that initially the ministry was told that James had qualifications but when she was asked to produce certain certificates, “they were not produced.” He added that at the time when she was interviewed, the certificates were indeed sent to the ministry and at that point, it was felt that they were “genuine.” It was later discovered that they were not. James indicated that she had Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in finance but there was “another professional exam in my view that she didn’t have,” Ramjattan said.
Following her resignation, James, issued a press statement in which she insisted that her qualifications, which she said were awarded by recognised UK universities, “meet and exceed the requirements” for the work she was undertaking at SOCU. She said that both Ramjattan and the head of SOCU had seen original evidence of her academic qualifications before her offer to resign and she had no qualms about their authenticity being verified.
James said that her resignation from SOCU was a carefully considered decision and not related to her refusal to present her academic qualifications as has been alleged. She added that her decision to resign was done to avoid compromising her “commitments to obligations of Confidentiality and NonDisclosure.”
Former advisor to SOCU Dr Sam Sittlington had told Stabroek News in an interview that he became concerned when James attempted to put herself over as an expert witness in the court case. Registration documents for a local branch of Sittlington’s Ireland-based company was leaked on the same day that reports surfaced that James had resigned. The report on Sittlington’s company was published in the Stabroek News and the following day, the British government terminated its contract with him. Sittlington has said that the leakage of the documents was to cover the controversy surrounding James and the numerous problems at the unit.
During the interview, Sittlington had recalled first meeting James in 2017, when she was being interviewed by the SOCU head at the unit’s Camp Street office. He said that she was appointed a few weeks before he left Guyana and when he returned a year later, she was still there.
He said though she isolated herself from the team and did her work on her own, he wasn’t suspicious because she was appointed with the approval of the Ministry of Public Security. “So I assumed they did their vetting on her and that she had the qualifications. I had no reason at that time not to question her integrity,” he said.
He added that while he was not in court, he later read the magistrate’s reports, which criticised James, and concluded that she could not be deemed a witness because she was not qualified.
According to Sittlington, the qualification she required to be a forensic analysis was an ACCA qualification. “So I couldn’t understand why that wasn’t mentioned— that she didn’t have any forensic skills or qualifications,” he said, before adding that subsequently the ministry asked him about James’ qualifications and said he suggested that her Curriculum Vitae (CV) be examined.
“So, I think her downfall has been because she could not produce the chartered accountant qualifications that were on her CV and …the other qualification she said she had relating to financial management. That means it’s a false CV being used for employment for a position which retains a very high salary…,” he said, before adding that after being told that she would be summarily dismissed, James opted to resign.