Ramadhar proposes: Roving unit to tackle corruption at state firms

A roving fraud unit with forensic auditors ready to launch on the spot investigations at State bodies is one of the initiatives Congress of the People (COP) political leader Prakash Ramadhar said he intends to pursue. The newly-elected COP leader said he would address rising concerns over an increase in allegations of corruption levelled against State entities and law enforcement bodies, including the Police Service. Ramadhar, speaking yesterday at a media conference at COP Operations Centre, Caroni Savannah Road, Chaguanas said: “One of our suggestions and we will pursue this, is the creation of a serious fraud office where police officers work together with highly-trained forensic accountants so that at anytime a roving audit team can be sent to any Government department or person and investigate them. These are things that will take time, but we are committed to this happening in this country.”

The acting Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister assured that COP would not remain silent on issues of corruption. “The COP would always stand up for what is right and speak out on things which are wrong. We have to be very careful. Yes allegations can be made, but we always made the point that when serious allegations are made with merit, there is a process,” he said. While he said he was distressed by the rising crime situation, Ramadhar rejected calls for the imposition of a state of emergency to deal with crime. “A state of emergency is a rupture of the constitution at any point in time and is not to be exercised lightly. It has to be in the most extreme cases. I don’t think we need a state of emergency to effect proper policing,” he added.

Ramadhar admitted that he too was growing a bit impatient with the fight against crime, however, “the crime situation did not occur overnight. We have to understand that we need to take a very sustainable approach to crime fighting and that is what is happening. It’s taking far too long in my mind, but it is happening,” he said. The Government, he said, was moving towards a technological approach to crime solving with the use of forensics and DNA. However, he said there was need for an increase of ground troops. The improvement of the police capacity at the training academy is being looked at by the Government “so that we will have more police officers with more vehicles, with more visibility and presence. It is critically important,” he said.

He also said there was a serious trust problem when it comes to citizens and their relationship with the police. Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs, he said, was taking steps to address this and had programmes in place to deal with crime. Ramadhar said Government was committed to ensuring that situations like the Clico meltdown and Hindu Credit Union collapse is not repeated in the  future.