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Dipcon gets $446M settlement and AG didn’t know
Dipcon Engineering Services Limited has won a huge settlement against the government of Guyana. Attorney
Former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall
General Basil Williams said that he was not aware of the Court case until after government lost it.
Dipcon took the government to court since 2009, during the reign of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government. This was while Charles Ramson was Attorney General.
However, judgment was only handed down last November.
The Court awarded US$665,032.17(G$133M) together with US$1,563,368 (G$313M). The first sum was awarded for the “road building and construction works” undertaken by Dipcon. The other sum was for the “increased cost incurred by Dipcon at the request of government.”
Further, the government has to pay interest on both sums. It also has to pay six percent interest per annum from 2009 when the judgment was filed to October 2015 and interest of four percent until the sum is fully paid.
In addition, government has been ordered to pay G$1.2M “cost” to Dipcon.
Williams did not announce the settlement. In fact, during his last Budget presentation, in February, Williams told the National Assembly that no judgment was granted against the State during his tenure.
He recently told Kaieteur News that he did not know about the matter until after judgment was handed down. He said that the matter was not dealt with by Chambers.
The Attorney General explained that his predecessor, Anil Nandlall had a habit of giving government cases out to private firms. Williams said that this was one of the cases.
Attorney General,
Basil Williams
He said that he was only made aware of what happened when the lawyer informed the Ministry of Finance that it has to pay the judgment.
“It was only then that the Ministry contacted me.”
Williams said that by the time he was made aware of the matter it was too late to file an appeal. However, he indicated that he has since sought to file an out of time appeal.
Nandlall was contacted about the allegation that he gave the cases out to a private lawyer instead of allowing the matter to be dealt with by lawyers at the AG’s chambers. He admitted that that happened and said that the Dipcon case was one which was given to a private firm. However, Nandlall said that the AG’s “excuse” is inexcusable.
“It is absolutely irresponsible on the part of the AG not to have acquainted himself with all the matters pending in the court when he assumed Office. Judgment was granted in November, he took office in May. Seven months and he is still unaware of the existence of the matter? That is the height of irresponsibility if not incompetence.”
Nandlall continued, “…and let me say this, I know about this matter and it is important to note that. Thirdly, he never appealed, the Judge granted a stay of execution of six weeks to allow the AG to appeal, but he never did. So now the state may be burdened with a judgment that is unnecessary.”
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