SARA Bill with Parliamentary Counsel for review – AG

Government has wrapped up consultations on the controversial State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) proposed legislation and the Bill is now before the Chief Parliamentary Counsel(CPC) for review.

On Thursday, Government spokesperson State Minister Joseph Harmon told reporters that following consultations, the Bill was handed over to the AG Chambers for final works before it is presented to the National Assembly.
However, when contacted on Friday, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams, told Guyana Times that he has completed his works and the proposed legislation is being reviewed by the CPC.
Following this process, he explained that the Bill will return to Cabinet for vetting and pending its approval, it will be laid in the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, later Friday while addressing the House, the Attorney General pointed out that the SARA Bill is purely a civil approach to assets recovery, and noted that the agency will have a director who will be empowered to make certain approaches in this regard.
Williams added that assets recovery is a global approach to deal with the cancer of pilfering of state assets and his government is working on a regimen to ensure there are witnesses to come out and blow the whistle on perpetrators.
Government had come under much flak over the draft SARA Bill, with experts and stakeholders saying that the proposed bill legislating SARA is not only dangerous and disingenuous but also a violation of numerous sections of Guyana’s supreme law – the Constitution.
To this end, there were several calls for further consultations on the Bill even for it to be halted until Government can clearly outline its desired objectives.
In fact, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) had pointed out in a statement that while all assets or resources belonging to State “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”, this must be done within the confines of the Guyana Constitution.
“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 victimised,” the body also said.
In lambasting the draft SARA Bill, the PSC drew reference to the fact that 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.”
According to the Private Sector body, “this is a complete affront to the fundamental rights of citizens and if such powers are granted, they can be used to marginalise, suppress and take advantage of vulnerable members of the population through political intimidation.”
The umbrella body of the local private sector had even sought legal opinion, which recommended that Government set up a small team, “possessing and having access to relevant skills and expertise, to consider how best to achieve the objectives.”
The PSC’s legal team also suggested that the State use existing mechanisms, including the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Double Taxation Treaties (Canada, UK and Caricom) and the Tax Information Exchange Agreement with the USA, to pursue suspected acts of illicit enrichment misfeasance and other violations using both the civil and criminal avenues.