Backer says Nandlall is but a transmitting officer when Bills are passed

Feb 10, 2013 News

Ramjattan says AG should not touch Bills passed

Attorney General Anil Nandlall serves as mere “transmitting officer” once Bills are passed in the National Assembly, Parliamentarian Deborah Backer has said.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall

Nandlall has suggested that he first has to clean up Bills that are passed in the House before they are sent to the President for assent. Without the Presidential assent, Bills passed in the House do not become law.
Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Mr Khemraj Ramjattan, an attorney like Nandlall, says the Attorney General is trying to “fluff up” his authority, since he should not touch any Bills once they are passed in the House.
In a letter in the newspapers, Nandlall said that all Bills passed by the House are first sent to the Chambers of the Attorney General by the Clerk of the National Assembly, “firstly to be examined by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and then by the Attorney General who issues an Assent Certificate advising His Excellency, the President, that he may properly assent to the Bill, provided, of course, that in the opinion of the Attorney General, the Bill is in order.”
“That is crazy,” Backer said of the Attorney General’s interpretation of his role.
She said that the functions of the Attorney General are mainly administrative and there is no constitutional requirement for the Attorney General to “tidy up” anything.
She said that if legislation is passed in the House, it is the administrative duty of the Attorney General whether he chooses to “use carriage or fax” to ensure that the Bill as passed in the House, without any changes or amendments, goes to the President. It is up to the President to assent or withhold his assent, she stated.
Backer said any tidying up, or any amendments, are the functions of the National Assembly and not the Attorney General, as he has suggested.

Parliamentarian Deborah Backer

She said that the Attorney General cannot seek to jump ahead of his responsibilities and tamper with Bills passed in the House.
Ramjattan shared the same view, saying that the function of the Attorney General is merely of an administrative nature once Bills are passed.
As such, he said that for the Attorney General to say he has to decide if the Bill is “in order” and use that as an excuse to delay or not send Bills for the President is highly out of order.
“Nandlall is only trying to big up himself and to make himself look more important than he is not,” Ramjattan said.
For Ramjattan, Nandlall’s interpretation of his function makes it seem that Bills passed in the House needs two assents, “the assent of Nandlall and the assent of the President. That is nonsense.”
It was Attorney and Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram who picked up Nandlall on his “proclivity for misunderstandings and misrepresentations…(and) his frequent pronouncements show extremely poor acquaintance, and at times no acquaintance, with the finer points of the Constitution.”
Nandlall was reported in the press as saying Bills passed in the House have not reached his chambers for “his inputs.”
Ram said that Guyanese expect their Attorney General, whoever he/she might be, to appreciate the dangers of tampering, or of delaying tactics by a political appointee, thereby frustrating the constitutional requirement for the President to assent or explain within twenty-one days.
Others have used the letter columns to say that “it is scandalous and brazen” and “offensive” for the Attorney General to direct the President to use of the presidential assent, which is a constitutional discretion specifically outlined in the constitution to be exercised only by the president.