ASHNI SINGH, WINSTON BRASSINGTON, RAJ SINGH AND OTHERS SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH INDICTABLE CRIMINAL OFFENSES
Editor,
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the sole constitutional authority whose duties perform a vital role in the administration of justice in criminal matters. It is uniquely vested with the power and responsibility to exercise control over the prosecution of all criminal matters, except the institution of a Court Martial.
Moreover, the DPP must not be lazy, biased or disinterested in discharging the constitutionally mandated functions of her tax payer funded, public portfolio and office. Otherwise, that person must resign. Guyana’s crime rate is already unacceptably high.
The DPP’s functions are pellucidly set out under Article 187 of the Constitution of Guyana. They are to institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person in respect of any offence that contravenes the Laws of Guyana.
The DPP could take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other person or Authority, to discontinue at any stage before any judgement is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by her or any other person or Authority.
These constitutional powers are vested in her to the exclusion of any other person or authority. The DPP shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or Authority. In carrying out these functions the major activities of the DPP are to give legal advice and to appear in Court “to discharge in accordance with the Constitution of Guyana, the obligation to ensure that all criminal matters are dealt with in a fair, impartial and efficient manner.”
Simply put, the DPP has to be worth her salt and upkeep, and provide justice to all, which includes everyone in Guyana, or step aside. He/she must ensure that persons who break the law are charged and prosecuted according with the laws of Guyana, without fear or favour.
President Theodore Roosevelt encapsulated it best when he said, “No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.”
It is respectfully submitted that based on the laws of conspiracy, aiding and abetting, attempt, misappropriation, misrepresentation, conversion, larceny and fraud, criminal charges are justified. Not only should Ashni Singh and Winston Brassington be charged for indictable offences, but others who were involved in their elaborate scheme and other schemes also.
It may be the tip of the iceberg, and the law and justice must fearlessly follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead to in other cases.
The DPP must do her job, or appoint a Special Prosecutor. Someone like Justice Ian Chang, should be appointed to fairly and competently prosecute this and other cases. In 1983, Chancellor Keith Massiah convened a Special Fraud Court to try such cases which similarly depleted the national coffers, under then Magistrate Ramraj Jagnandan, who did a remarkable job. Senior State Counsel Albert Baldeo, one of the finest prosecutors, prosecuted all of those cases vigorously and fearlessly.
The acting Chancellor should do likewise, if the DPP refuses to carry out her constitutional mandate.
After all, these are egregious cases involving three plots of State land, to the extent that Singh, “being the Chairman of NICIL and Brassington, being the CEO in December of 2008, by way of Agreement of Sale and Purchase, sold to Scady Business Corporation a track of State land (4.7 acres) being a portion of Plantation Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, for the sum of $150,000,000 knowing that the said property was valued at $340,000,000 by Rodrigues Architects Associate, a competent valuation officer.”
The other charges allege that “Singh and Brassington sold to Multicinemas Guyana Inc. a plot of State land (10 acres) at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, for the sum of $185,037, 000, without first having procured a valuation of the said property from a competent valuation officer, and also that Singh and Brassington in 2009, by way of an Agreement of Sale and Purchase sold to the National Hardware Guyana Limited a track of Sate land (103 acres), being a portion of Plantation Liliendaal and Turkeyen for the sum of $598,659,398 (VAT exclusive) without first having procured a valuation of the said property from a competent valuation officer.”
Similarly, former Ministers of Health Volda Lawrence’s and George Norton’s dealings with ANSA McAl Trading Limited concerning $605,962,200 and the tenancy at 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown concerning the sum of $12,500,000 respectively, must be investigated by the DPP and prosecuted to the full extent of the criminal law if prosecutorial standards are met.
The beneficiaries of these actions are subject to prosecution also.
Firing a suspected white collar miscreant, without indicting and enjoining him/her from leaving Guyana, can afford and facilitate that person a new and luxurious life away from those he/she destroyed with the stolen assets, and from the reaches of the law and justice.
For example, amid the crisis in the sugar industry, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Sugar Corporation, Dr. Rajendra Singh and his Board of Directors were merely asked to resign, after they “mishandled” a $6B bailout, and then requested another outrageous $16B “to avert an industry-wide shut down.”
Proper investigations, forensic audits and injunctions are mandatory in glaring cases of malfeasance like these and the several others that have crippled and pillaged Guyana’s economy, and overburdened Guyanese tax payers.
This opinion is not based on whim or caprice, mere speculation or prejudice, but based on evidence which could reasonably meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal cases, the benchmark for instituting criminal charges. They also reflect serious breaches of the public trust and coffers, and are major financial crimes.
They make the U.S. mob and racketeering (RICO) laws pale in significance, and constitute an attack on the collective assets of the Guyanese nation, and are much more than mere “misconduct in public office contrary to common law.”
Anyone charged with plundering national assets will hardly be extradited to stand trial back in Guyana, but like the others, will retire very comfortably in luxury and pomp beyond the jurisdiction of the laws of Guyana and justice, enjoying their filthy lucre invisibly and extravagantly, unnoticed, unabated and undisturbed.
Moreover, it mandates a more forensic and in-depth investigations that may lead to bigger criminals, crime syndicates, bosses, cohorts and culprits who sophisticatedly, barefacedly and perversely stole and converted Guyana’s resources and assets to the detriment of the Guyanese people, while considering themselves above the law.
I have seen cases with less evidence result in charges, and unanimous guilty verdicts from the defendants’ peers on a jury. The DPP needs to do her job fearlessly and fairly. The media should not be hesitant to publish this opinion for it is based on a matter of public interest and national importance.
Laurie Ganpat
