Enmore NDC demands seized equipment within seven days; Threatens legal action thereafter

Attorney-at-law, Anil Nandlall on behalf of the Enmore Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) has written to Head of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), Aubrey Heath-Retemyer demanding that computers removed from the NDC’s office be returned within one week.

The Peoples’ Progressive Party which won 16 of the 18 seats on the Enmore NDC at the Local Government Elections held in March, 2016, had noted that officials of SARU, entered the NDC’s on April 06, 2017, along with an APNU+AFC Councillor and removed 15 complete desktop computers and 8 backup power-packs, belonging to the Community Resource Center.

However, in a subsequent statement, eGovernment Project Execution Unit says the computers were donated by the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) and were removed after the unit got wind of moves to sell the equipment. The Agency has noted that the decision to sell the items was made at the NDC’s statutory meeting since 16 November, 2016.

In the letter which was shared with the media, Nandlall informed that failure to return the equipment within seven (7) days from today (Tuesday, April 11, 2017), he will advise “to institute legal proceedings against the State and possibly, private criminal charges against each of the officers who were part of the aforementioned unlawful and criminal exercise.”

He deemed the actions by the EGovernment Unit and SARU as “authoritarian… unlawful, illegal, and unconstitutional,” adding that it amounts to misfeasance in public office.