Fostering of white-collar crime?

In my opinion, the Attorney General should have taken the opportunity to assure the people that the PNM Government was determined to curtail money laundering, income tax evasion, fraud and similar white-collar crimes and had taken steps to ensure that intelligence reports submitted by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to the law enforcement authorities were investigated and that miscreants when identified would be brought to justice.

The FIU has fulfilled its mandate and has performed its functions efficiently.

Its annual reports are submitted to the Ministry of Finance in a timely manner and intelligence reports submitted to the relevant law enforcement agency for further action.

Between 2011 and 2015, the FIU has analysed 2,341 suspicious activity reports with a dollar value of approximately $3.7 billion. Investigations resulted in generating 255 intelligence reports, 157 of which were submitted to the Police Service (Financial Investigations Bureau), 87 to the Board of Inland Revenue, three to the Customs and Excise Division, and eight to the Immigration Division for further action.

However, to date it appears there has been no further action on these reports. Surely the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, including the Attorney General, is aware of this inaction.

Then there is the utter contempt exhibited by parliamentarians, and others, who should be the exemplars in our society, who failed to submit their annual returns to the Integrity Commission as required by law. To the best of my knowledge, no action has been taken against defaulters.

Other displays of contempt have been exhibited by boards of Government- owned companies, which act as though they enjoy autonomy, by paying their executive members exhorbitant salaries, even retroactively, even when the company is losing money, and without approval of the Minister of Finance, as required by law.

The Attorney General should have explained why no action has been taken to recover the unauthorised salary increases paid to executive members and also the unauthorised payment of a reported $5.575 million medical bill for a senior staff member of Petrotrin.

It is reported that a former president of a state-owned company, after three and a half years of service with the “money-losing” company, is in receipt of a monthly pension of $90,000. Can our country afford such generosity? These payments were illegal having not been approved by the Minister of Finance, as required by law.

Why has no action been taken to recover the $47 million paid by the Sports Company to a contractor for work not performed? Why has no action been taken against those people in the Ministry of Sport who authorised this illegal payment, without the approval of the Minister of Finance, as required by law? A newspaper article of December 14, 2014, stated that in 2010 a minister made substantial grants to an NGO. It was also alleged the MP had illegally employed family members in the constituency office including a person resident overseas. Other activities were mentioned, none of which, to my knowledge, have been investigated.

If true, have these employees paid income tax on the salaries received? During its five years in office, the PP government failed to take action on these important matters.

The PNM Government has four years left to identify and to take action against money launderers, tax evaders, and fraudsters and to recover the people’s money.

Is inaction fostering money laundering, tax evasion, fraud, theft from Stateowned companies, and similar white-collar crimes?