Public can file corruption claims at SARA

The State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) has launched a campaign aimed at edifying the public on their role in fighting corruption.

One of the messages this Agency hopes to get across to the public is that anyone can make a report with SARA – which is mandated by the law to investigate claims of corruption against present or past Governments.

During an interview with the News Room on Tuesday, SARA Communications Officer, Melissa Davy explained how the public can get involved in the anti-corruption campaign.

“There are a number of Government projects that are going on so if I see some sort of misappropriation happening and I have evidence, I need to forward that evidence to SARA,” Davy stated.

There are concerns that SARA was established with the intent to witch-hunt political opponents but the Communications Officer assured this is not the case.

Davy explained that SARA was actually born from a “United Nations Convention that Guyana and about 140 other countries signed onto since 2003.”

“So since the early 2000s, what the UN was trying to do was to get Member States to sign onto this Convention and then when they go back to their own countries, they were trying to get them to set up anti-corruption agencies,” Davy said.

She noted too that SARA will shortly launch an online process whereby persons can make reports electronically as well as anonymously.

The first activity in this ongoing campaign will be the Anti-Corruption Walk billed for April 20, 2018 (Friday). The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness of corruption and to ignite a national conversation on everybody’s role in combating this scourge.