Nandlall concealed salient legal information and documents from me -AG Basil Williams

Mar 06, 2017 News

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– Contends that Dipcon file and related information were not at his Chambers
By: Kiana Wilburg

The war of words between Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams and his predecessor, Anil Nandlall, escalated yesterday, with Williams accusing the former AG of failing to disclose documents and information that relate to salient legal matters.
Williams’ comments, made on his Facebook page, come in wake of recent verbal attacks by Nandlall, who has repeatedly accused Williams of being utterly incompetent. The most recent example used by Nandlall was the issue of the Dipcon case, which ended with the court ordering Guyana to pay a huge settlement to the Trinidadian engineering firm.
Nandlall has even made several remarks to the press stating that perhaps, the Minister of Legal Affairs is incapable of introspection and instead, resorts to blaming everyone else around him when things go wrong regarding pertinent legal matters of the state.
But, accusing Nandlall of failing to release documents and information that relate to important legal issues, Williams revealed that a bipartisan transition team was mandated to arrange for him to meet with Nandlall to effect a handing over of the Ministry to him.
“We met, and Nandlall concealed from me the following salient matters:-
Large outstanding unpaid judgments that proved to (be) burdensome to the new Government; and extant cases involving large sums of money being claimed against the former Government to be inherited by the new Government, for example, the Dipcon’s case.”
Furthermore, Williams also accused Nandlall of failing to hand over documents relating to the collaborative agreement between the University of Guyana, the University of the West Indies and the Council of Legal Education. The Attorney General said that Nandlall also concealed documents relating to the establishment of a local Law school.
Dipcon Engineering Services Limited 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 in October, 2015. This was six months after Williams assumed office. It was in August, 2016, that Williams told the media that he was unaware of the Court case, until after government lost it. He said that the matter was not dealt with by Chambers.
In the Dipcon case, 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.
Speaking to the Dipcon case on his Facebook page, the Minister of Legal Affairs said that it was given to an external lawyer and there was no file or any record in the AG’s Chambers of this fact.
Additionally, Williams said that Nandlall did not disclose that, “There were numerous sightings of documents being spirited out of the Ministry to him and his driver, and no amount of diligence would result in the Dipcon file being found in the AG’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs.”
NANDLALL’S VERSION
In response to the Attorney General’s Facebook comments, Nandlall said that Williams has an unhealthy obsession with him. The Opposition member said that he strongly rejects the allegations and that they are absolutely outlandish and a product of a warped mind.
“Williams has an imagination that should be utilized by Hollywood. He concocts and fabricates these suspense-filled thriller stories to excuse and hide his abysmal incompetence. Imagine I have left office two years ago and I am still being blamed for documents that are missing in the Chambers. What benefit would I derive by concealing documents from the Attorney General? All these documents are in the court system.”
In a recent statement to the media, Nandlall said that Williams, continues to clumsily blame every person under the sun, other than himself, for his manifest incompetence.
“Yours truly, Solicitor-General, Sita Ramlal, Deputy Solicitor-General, Pretima Kissoon, former Chancellor, Carl Singh and indeed the entire Court of Appeal, among others, have all been victims of blame by the Attorney- General, in his relentless attempt to hide his ineptitude.”
The Opposition member said that the most recent example of this “puerile strategy” is contained in an affidavit filed by the Attorney-General for leave to appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) against the judgment obtained by Dipcon against the State.
Nandlall noted that this judgment was granted since October 21, 2015, by Justice Rishi Persaud.
With this in mind, the Opposition Member expressed that Williams has been holding the office of Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs since May 2015, a full six months before the judgment was granted.
Nandlall said that the State in these proceedings was represented by Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Roysdale Forde.
Nandlall said that the AG Chambers has an institutional record-keeping system that documents the status of every matter pending before the Court, and the Attorney-at-Law who has conduct of the matter, whether that Attorney-at-Law is attached to the Chambers or is external to the Chambers.
“It is obviously the responsibility of the AG to apprise himself of each case in the system. This current AG loves to create the impression that he is the first holder of that office. Unfortunately for him, the reality is different and the public knows that. Every new Attorney-General has had the duty, when he assumes office, to familiarize himself with the workings of the office, including the pending cases. I did the same.”
Nandlall said that if an AG fails to do so and something goes wrong, then he must “man-up” and accept responsibility for his failure and negligence, rather than throwing child-like tantrums.
Turning his attention to the Dipcon matter, Nandlall said that not only was the judgment granted six months after Williams was appointed but he had conceded that he learnt about it in January 2016, a further four months after the judgment was granted.
“If this was not an indictment enough, the incompetence was further compounded by the Attorney-General filing an application for an extension of time within which to file a notice of appeal, until May 12, 2016. A further five months after he admits knowing of the existence of the judgment. Therefore, the entire period of the neglect is an entire year from the time he took office.”
Nandlall said that even if one were to excuse the prior incompetence, and accept that Williams only learnt of the existence of the judgment in January, 2016, he contended that a competent Attorney-at-Law would have filed an application for an extension of time, within which to appeal, i.e. in January, 2016, itself.
“This learned Attorney-General took a further five months to do so and then blames me and the rest of the world for his plight. In my considered opinion, the Court of Appeal was perfectly correct in dismissing his application.”
Nandlall added that there is a high likelihood that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) would do likewise.

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