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PPP leaves judiciary with $$B debt – AG
By Abena Rockcliffe
As if the discoveries about the transgressions of the People Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government
Attorney General,
Basil Williams
are never ending, the National Assembly was last evening told about yet another financial burden that the new government has to carry on its back.
Last evening, Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Basil Williams, took to the floor of the National Assembly to speak to a motion which seeks to have the House approve the polices of the new government as outlined by President David Granger during his address at the convening of the Eleventh Parliament. This motion was eventually approved by the House.
Williams spoke to the glorious future that the new administration seeks to make a reality for Guyana. However, he bemoaned the fact that such an endeavor is not one that will be met easily.
The Attorney General said that the government is burdened by a horrendous debt. He said that it was only by chance that he recently found out about yet another debt that the PPP administration left Guyana to pay.
The Minister told the House that he recently visited the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and was informed that Guyana is yet to honor its financial obligation as to the outcome of a matter with the Rudisa Beverage Company. The CCJ ruled in favour of the company and so Guyana was asked to pay $1.2B (US$6M). But the PPP, two years later, did not pay.
“I wish to make this very clear because the next thing you know next week this new government will be blamed for the question of nonpayment of that debt,” said Williams.
But it did not stop there. Williams then revealed that $57M which was judiciously awarded to Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) when it won a case against the PPP government, is yet to be paid.
Williams told the House, “Perhaps the former Attorney General (Anil Nandlall) can tell the Guyanese people why his government did not pay these sums”
The CCJ had order that the government pay Suriname Company Rudisa Beverages some US$6M which had been collected in an environmental tax in contravention of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which requires equal treatment of products and services from all Caricom member countries.
The tax was deemed discriminatory.
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