Ramdeen: What role for AG’s Anti-Terrorism Unit?

OPPOSITION Senator Gerald Ramdeen asked the purpose of an Anti-Terrorism Unit to be set up in the AG’s Office, saying its powers and roles must first be spelt out by legislation or it would possess merely the AG’s existing powers.

He spoke in today's Senate debate on a bill to amend the Proceeds of Crime, Anti-Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Unit Acts. The bill establishes the Anti-Terrorism Unit to exercise the AG’s powers.

“Unless you put into the legislation its powers it is just a group of people who can exercise the powers that section 38 (b)(2) lets the AG delegate.”

Ramdeen noted the Proceeds of Crime Act 2000 was passed 18 years ago.

He expressed sympathy for new Independent Senators having to be present to grapple with the bill. “I feel for the new members on the Independent bench, having received the bill last night from the House of Representatives.

“We all left here in the wee hours last night (Tuesday night). This is not a complaint; we have to do the people’s business.”

Mulling what will happen after the day’s legislation is passed, Ramdeen said an inquiry held 11 years ago at a cost of $500 million had so far resulted in not a single person being charged before the law courts, in an apparent reference to the Uff Commission of Inquiry into spending by the Patrick Manning administration.

“Are we to still continue changing our laws but get no benefits?” he asked. Ramdeen lamented a gaping hole in prosecution of offences, and pointed out that in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, out of 128 positions, only 55 were filled and a whopping 73 posts vacant.

Saying these vacancies equated to “spinning top in mud” regarding law enforcement, Ramdeen said, “Let’s do all we can to fill the 73 positions.”

He lamented that the value of all cases prosecuted in law courts was a mere one per cent of the $22 billion worth of suspicious transactions reported.

He urged a public education campaign for all financial institutions affected by this legislation. “I’ve heard very little from the Government as to what steps will betaken to educate the people.”