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Govt access to US$17M IDB loan…Greenidge vs. Ashni Singh court date set for All Fools’ Day
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Shadow Minister of Finance Carl Greenidge is not pleased with
APNU’s Carl Greenidge
the fact that acting Chief Justice (CJ), Ian Chang has set the hearing for a legal challenge he filed against the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, to be on April Fools’ Day.
Greenidge filed a writ at the High Court last week to prevent the government from accessing a US$17M loan it recently received from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The defendants in the case are Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
According to the writ filed by Greenidge’s lawyer, Roysdale Forde, the plaintiff is asking that the proceeds under the Loan Agreements signed between Dr. Singh and the IDB be paid into the Consolidated Fund. Greenidge is also asking that there be no withdrawal of the proceeds of the said Loan Agreements except by an Appropriation Act as directed by Article 217 of the Constitution.
Greenidge’s lawyer also asked the court to hear and subsequently grant a Conservatory Order to ensure that the Minister of Finance and any of his agents cannot spend or permit such as it relates to the loans, pending the hearing and determination of the case.
Greenidge told Kaieteur News that his lawyer was informed yesterday that the CJ named April 1 as the day on which the matter will be considered.
The former finance minister said that he is not aware whether “judges are supposed to indulge in humourous tricks or pranks in the course of their professional practice, but I will assume for the time being, that the date is of no significance”.
Nonetheless, Greenidge said that the decision has disappointed and alarmed him for two reasons.
The politician explained that an injunction or Conservatory Order would normally be considered within one or two days, because the subject matters they concern cannot be undone easily, if at all. He said that the need for urgency is also obvious and in Guyana “judges sometimes make odd decisions.”
Greenidge on that note said that a Minister of Finance may spend billions with the stroke of a pen, as it were, but within the two weeks to the end of the month, the CJ will be reflecting on the matter while all the money is likely to have been spent. This, he said, is unless the date for the hearing has been issued along with the equivalent of a temporary restraining order.
The APNU Executive Member said that as far as he is aware, that has not been done, so he is now left to consider the situation and wonder what to make of the CJ’s intentions.
Greenidge said that the CJ has been asked to look at the law, particularly the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, and stop the Government from spending without the agreement of a new Parliament.
He said too that Chang has accepted the Order, but sets a date nearly two weeks away, an unprecedented act as far as he has been advised, especially because this is likely to give the Government an additional 14 days, at least, to prepare its defence.
The politician asserted that the CJ, therefore, without pronouncing on the merits or otherwise of the case, has left the stable door open in a manner that would render any decision he eventually hands down almost completely ineffectual, if not meaningless.
He reminded that the delay in the so-called Budget Cuts case of 2013 had exactly the same effect. He said that the Government was able to spend unrestrained in spite of Budget cuts while the Courts, oblivious to the danger, pursued a process which had the effect of giving the Government the room it wished.
Greenidge pointed out that in the most recent case that APNU brought before the CJ, he agreed that the Government was breaking the law in spending what had not been approved, but declined to venture a decision with regard to constraining them from continuing to break the law and breach the Constitution.
The former finance Minister said that one may offer many reasons for the manner in which the CJ words his decisions as well as the processes he utilizes.
“Most people would agree that justice delayed is justice denied but C. Northcote-Parkinson, one of my favourite references for students reading Public Finance or Public Administration coined a rider, The Law of Delay – delay is the deadliest form of denial. And he went on to explain, “Delays are thus deliberately designed as a form of denial and extended to cover the life expectation of the person whose proposal is being pigeon-holed. This is the law of delay.”
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