BU admit that while investigating our yesterday’s story it has been an eye opener. Often when we think of our system of justice we think of Law Courts and the police. The truth is there are many other groups that play a significant role to ensure that justice is delivered. Over past weeks BU have joined with Barbados Free Press in being heavily critical of the Commissioner of Police given the escalating crime and obvious corruption which has emerged across our society.
After presenting our discussion point yesterday BU think that other players in the legal system need to be brought into the firing line, namely the lawyers and the real estate agents!
BU have written extensively in the past about soft corruption. We find Barbados to be fortunate, among other Caribbean islands that none of our politicians have ever been accused in the law courts or the media of money laundering, or as some would say, financial misdeeds. We hear of other islands where high officials have been arrested and or convicted of such crimes. Can it be said that our top officials in Barbados must be either Saints or Gods and not subject to the failings and weaknesses of regular men. Barbados must truly be a paradise maybe even the Garden of Eden itself. Should we check our photos in the press for a halo over the head of Arthur’s and his disciples?
The Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) was given life when the Money Laundering (Prevention and Control) Act 1988-38 was passed. The AMLA is charged under the act to supervise financial institutions to prevent money laundering and it currently operates under the control of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
The AMLA is made up of nine members, drawn mainly from the key public sector agencies that relate directly to anti-money laundering activity.
The composition of the Authority is as follows:
- Chairperson – from the private sector
- Deputy Chairperson – from the University of the West Indies
- The Solicitor General, or representative
- The Commissioner of Police, or representative
- The Commissioner of Inland Revenue, or representative
- The Comptroller of Customs, or representative
- The Supervisor of Insurance, or representative
- The Registrar of Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property, or representative
- Representative of the Central Bank of Barbados
Source: FIU
A question to the AMLA__can it be said that since the establishment of your Unit no significant arrest(s) and or prosecution(s) has ever been made?
BU have received several notes over the past weeks, some of which contain information which we are unable to verify. We wish to assure BU contributors that we will continue to process any information received in the interest of a better Barbados. We wish to assure BU contributors that we will continue to process any information received in the interest of a better Barbados.
Who are some of these top officials in Barbados who continue to escape the arm of the law?
BU have been told that two groups which are responsible for facilitating the scourge of money laundering are lawyers and real estate agents. We jump to add that in every barrel they are bad apples and it is the bad apples which BU seek to target. How many of our lawyers and real estate agents accept CASH payments from clients while having healthy suspicions that the source of the funds may have been ill-gotten or to avoid paying taxes. These two groups facilitate large transactions because they are key players in real estate transactions where large sums of monies are involved.
It continues to boggle our minds that money laundering, as in most countries, must be happening in Barbados, but entities like the AMLA which are setup as watch-dog agencies appear to be unable to detect the wrong doings. But then again maybe they are detecting but others have the responsibility to prosecute. What a BU source has confirmed__ Commissioner Darwin Dottin and the FIU have submitted many files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The question which we must ask is why is it that the DPP has never been able to translate the files to “prosecutable cases”. Of course we know the answer, not enough weighty evidence!
What is clear to BU is the inability or unwillingness _call it what you will_ to prosecute the ring leaders that head crime in Barbados. This has led to a situation where soft-corruption is propagating and taking root. Not only is it concentrated in the political arena but has firmly taken hold in the wider society. The role of the DPP like the Commissioner of Police MUST come under the microscope. Barbadians MUST start asking questions. How does the office of the DPP work? Is the office playing its role effectively given the changing landscape of how jurisprudence should be exercised in a modern society?
May God help us if we don’t take charge of our country!
A question which is missing from the piece is what are the options open to Commissioner Dottin or the FIU if the DPP elects not to prosecute? Does it end there or can they push it if they have the desire.
I am so happy that you are taking on this. I have been for some time suggesting to anyone that this is what needs to be looked at. I can gaurantee you that as you continue to investigate, and ask questions, on these thing that you will undoubtedly come to the conlusion that these set of things are not acidents, not happenstances, nor solely the result of corrupt intent carried out in a system or against a system that makes that is just and fair. You will find that our systems and practices have worked as it is percieved, as a direct result of corruption, and that corruption/patronage is by design the mortor that cements the parts, the players, the actors, those responsible and not responsible, for this poorly understood thing we have and that we call governance.
Good job and please keep at it.
Adrain2~Thanks!
It seems that the only issues which will mobilize public opinion in Barbados are those of a political flavor. This topic for example will be read but I am not sure that people care about these issues. I agree with you that an issue like this is what I call a bedrock issue. We can ask for Integrity Legislation or about arresting corruption but it will not happen unless Barbadians replace conventions and traditions with more relevant ways of managing our society. If we don’t we will alienate generations to come which will lead to the inevitable social dysfunction.
On another note did I hear right today that there was a land transaction taking place in the house of assembly today for more lands to be vested in the Hotel and resorts project, now we cannot see balance sheets or anything but more lands are being vested in this project what madness is this?
WiV~This is a case where the Auditor General should be working hand in hand with a watchdog agency in our governance structure to command a response from government on what is a clear violation of the financial rules of Barbados. There has been zero accountability in the GEMS affair. It will be interesting to observe how Clyde JAWS Mascoll approaches this matter as he must on the campaign trail
What type of democracy do we have when our government can frustrate to the point of refusal the people’s right to get information regarding the financial state of Hotel and Resorts Ltd. BU see as worrying the numbness which has become our society where they have become tired asking but equally have become confused because of no safe place to turn__where is the Opposition?
WHY IS THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE NOT WORKING. At the minimum the Leader of the opposition should have created a firm perception in the head of the public that he is not the reason it remains defunct. At this time most of the public thinks that Thompson has not done enough to breath life into the PAC.
It is a situation which he has a short time to fix!
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On any given day in Barbados, there are tens of thousands (wire) transfers conducted at commercial banks across Bim.
At no time, during any 24 hour span, does the CBB know what is an individual or company’s (cumulative) amount of forex demands for any bank
Further to this indictment on our CBB Monopoly Money institution, there is no system there which permits Worrell to say the name of the single highest forex transactor for any day, week or month.
In fact you would be further astounded to know that A. Muhammed, A.J. Muhammed, J.A Muhammed and any other variation that Achmed chooses for any given day, gives Achmed unlimited use to abuse the system
Achmed can go to 5 different Banks with the same central bank authorization and Worrell of Monopoly a la Barbados will not catch this anomaly.
IF Achmed’s records are ever seen and moved to investigation, according to the current manual system, De Light Worrell will only see that 8 MONTHS LATER!!!
The system that Delisle Worrell are using across the financial institutions is mainly (and purposefully) manual. Tiefing and laundering love inefficiency
Even though the CBB has required commercial banks (and other financial institutions) to provide an electronic record of all transactions on a daily basis, the banks, lords to themselves, have refused to provide these using a standard excel format.
It is Wishing in Vain (no plagiarism intended) to even think that in this day where a bajan can send and receive $$ through Western Union and effect any transaction via PayPal, Governor Delisle Worrell has avoided any electronic systems which can tie every banking transaction to the CBB
Add this to John Blow lawyer at Chambers who through the declaration of source of deposits over $10K says that “24 of his clients each deposited $100K each today” “This accounts for the 2.4 million i am placing on my client account.” Money cleaned
THis is why we have the recipe for a mess up of royal proportions here in this Gem of the Caribbean Sea, money launderers aided and abetted by real criminals otherwise called lawyers and real estate agents
I would hazard a guess that if the renown pollster Peter Wickham was hired to conduct a survey to establish how many people knew what was the name of the curly haired man who is the Director of Public Prosecution 1 in 1500 people would know
Furthermore if they were to be asked what he does, that survey would show how abysmally low knowledge of the man and his functions was.
With all due respect to said DPP i would respectfully submit that, as my previous submission sought to highlight an absence of any cohesive reporting system, our DPP, whom the many xenophobes call “the Guyanese scunt” would understandable not had any comprehensive financial information to use in a court of law.
Just doodling here waiting till the insulin wuk in
correction “would understandably not have any comprehensive financial information to use in a court of law”.