…British Govt sends SOCU Advisor Sittlington packing; cites conflict of interest
“In light of information about Dr Sam Sittlington’s private business interests his contract in Guyana has been terminated with immediate effect”.
Those were the words of British High Commissioner to Guyana Greg Quinn who released a statement moments ago distancing himself and by extension his country from the move by Sittlington to establish his own local investigative firm in Guyana named “The Fraud Company (Guyana) Inc”.
Conflict of interest concerns were cited as Sittlington, a United Kingdom white collar crime expert, was working under the auspices of the British High Commission in Guyana as an advisor to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), a investigate arm of the Guyana Police Force.
According to documents seen by this publication, Sittlington who outlined his occupation as a consultant will be the Director of the above mentioned company.
The company was incorporated under the Companies Act of Guyana in September of 2018.
Experts, had outlined, among other concerns that “It is highly unethical for a consultant who is being paid by a foreign government to advise and train a sensitive department such as the SOCU to establish a company which will undertake similar work.”
Moreover, in reinforcing the point, the observers posited that the said consultant has access to highly confidential information on numerous persons at SOCU and has embarked on fishing expeditions on most of the cases under investigation.
As such, a major concern was that information gleamed from SOCU could be used inappropriately.
