The government has dismantled the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) and fired 42 employees including its Director, Dr. Clive Thomas and Deputy Director, Aubrey Heath-Retemyer.
A statement from Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, said that this was in keeping with the PPP/C Administration’s initial goal of closing operations of the SARA office. Letters terminating the employment of the staff were dispatched on Tuesday.
The Director and Deputy Director were told in their dismissal letters that their appointments were in breach of the State Assets Recovery Act 2017, were null and void and would be terminated.
Nandlall also noted that the employees could not be transferred to different agencies since they had been engaged on contract rather than the fixed establishment.
SARA was created from the State Asset Recovery Unit which operated out of the Office of the President under the APNU+AFC administration.
Nandlall said that there was also widespread criticism from a number of organisations about the Bill that led to the creation of the agency.
The Attorney General said the Government will now begin to strengthen the asset recovery components of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism legislation. There will also be steps taken to enact legislation utilizing the CARICOM model of State Asset Recovery.
