Daaga’s power

In my opinion the FIU has been fulfilling its mandate and has been submitting its Annual Reports to the Minister of Finance , and the Intelligence Reports generated from the Suspected Transactions Reports and the Suspected Activities Reports received ,to the Commissioner of Police ,the Chairman of the Board of the Inland Revenue ,the Comptroller of Customs and Excise, and to the Chief Immigration Officer. in a timely manner.

However,to the best of my knowledge,no further action has been taken by any of these Law Enforcement Agencies. No person mentioned in the numerous Intelligence Reports submitted since 2011 has been charged and brought to justice.

Who is responsible for this long delay in taking action? Is it the Commissioner of Police,the Chairman of the Board of the Inland Revenue, the Comptroller of Customs and Excise or the Chief Immigration Officer or is it the Director of Public Prosecutions,the Minister of Finance or one of our Prime Ministers since 2011? Someone must be responsible for this unacceptable delay and I call on the Prime Minister to initiate immediate action on the 581 Intelligence Reports submitted to the Law Enforcement Authorities from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2015.

Hereunder are some extracts from the 2015 Report of the FIU : For the period 2011 to 2015, 2,341 Suspect transactions were received as follows : 2011 (303 STRs/ SARs) ;2012 (258); 2013(554); 2014(617) and 2015(609) .

During the period, the above STRs/SARs generated a total of 581 Intelligence Reports which were submitted to the appropriate Law Enforcement Authorities as follows : 2011 (16 Intelligence Reports); 2012(31); 2013 (128) ; 2014 (228) and 2015 (178).

The total value of the STRs/SARs received for the period was TT $ 3.7 billion.

These involved 216 incidents of Tax evasion; Fraud -81 incidents ; Drug Trafficing -78 incidents; Money Laundering -67 incidents ; Financing of Terrorism - 16: Misbehaviour in Public Office - 6 ; Extortion - 5; Other offences-6 Of the 277 persons who were suspected of participating in suspicious transactions in the 2015 Report ,126 were bankers, senior company officials, consultants, and teachers ; 82 were business traders ; 64 were unskilled workers ; and five were politically exposed persons.

In an unrelated matter, several millions of taxpayers dollars have been expended on numerous Commissions of Enquiry but to date, to the best of my knowledge, only in the enquiry into the construction of the Piarco Airport Terminal have any charges been made. Why no action has been taken on the recommendations of the Commissioners with respect to the Enquiry into the Hindu Credit Union and into Clico. The report on the Enquiry into the Hindu Credit Union was made public but the report of the Commission of Enquiry into Clico has never been released for public information despite several requests from numerous interested persons.

Another matter which disturbes me is that on August 25 ,2005 , 1,749 kilos of cocaine,valued at TT$700 million together with seven firearms and ammunition, were seized by the Coast Guard on Monos Island and handed over to the Police. The six “small fish” who were caught in possession,and who could never own such a large quantity of cocaine ,were used as “sacrifical lambs” found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Apparently the Police,the DPP and the Judiciary were satisfied that the matter had been successfully concluded.

But why was the “Big Fish”, the owners of the cocaine, not relentlessly pursued ,and brought to justice? I was never satisfied with the level of investigations since the “Big Fish” was never caught. Why would six men be prepared to serve their lives in prison rather than give information that would have led to the “Big Fish”. What became of “plea bargaining”?