While legislation that deals with unexplained wealth already exists, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC says that it will be given a second look.
Recently, this issue has been on the front burner in neighbouring, Trinidad and Tobago. There have been mixed reactions to the introduction of the Civil Asset Recovery Unexplained Wealth Bill by that country’s AG Faris Al-Rawi. The bill seeks to establish processes to track and probe unexplained wealth, particularly regarding people subject to investigation under the Proceeds of Crime (POC) Act that covers over 20 offences from drug/arms/human trafficking to corruption and bribery.
This newspaper had earlier this month asked Williams whether his office will be drafting new legislation to deal with instances of unexplained wealth in Guyana. In response, he said that such legislation already exists. He singled out the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) legislation, as well as the laws governing the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), which were in place “ever since” and which are akin to unexplained wealth legislation. The former, he said, has a section which talks about an irresistible conclusion about someone’s wealth; that is, if they have wealth and they can’t explain how they were able to obtain it.
