Proposed amendments to Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act executive vulgarity

Proposed amendments to Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act executive vulgarity – Nandlall

Mar 15, 2017 News

“That Bill is an act of executive vulgarity. The deeds and commercial authority was created specifically

Former AG, Anil Nandlall

to insulate that organisation from political and ministerial interference.”
The Bill referred to is the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority (Amendment) Bill 2017.
It is the belief of former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall that the amendments, which the Bill seeks to make to the Deeds and Commercial Registries Act, represent executive interference into an organ which should be independent for a number of reasons.
One of the amendments to the Bill seeks to insert the Minister of Legal Affairs to perform the functions of the Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority.
According to Nandlall, the very broad based Board was created comprising of important stakeholders who transact business with the registry.
“That board was supposed to run the registry, manage it and that board was supposed to hire the staff so that the staff could have flexible working hours and not bound by the public service rules. It was all part of making the deeds registry a competitive place for business as part of our international loan agreement; we got financing to do those things; to make it business friendly.”
The former AG added that the Deeds and Commercial Registries were not to be subjected to the control and direction of any minister. He said that the particular amendment being put forward by Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Basil Williams is designed to reverse the entire process.
“He has an obligation under the current Act to appoint the governing board; he has refused to do so over the past 20 months and now he is passing a law to say that when there is no board, the minister can act. So he is capitalising on his own deliberate omission.”
Nandlall said that Williams’s action is misfeasance in public office saying that the AG deliberately disobeyed the official duties conferred on him by law.

Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams

“That is why I went to the court and I got an order compelling him to appoint the governing board.”
The High Court had granted an Order Nisi of Mandamus on Williams to appoint the members of the Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority.
The matter, which was heard before Justice Brassington Reynolds, was filed by former Attorney General Anil Nandlall on March 6, last, and granted on March 8.
In his application, Nandlall said that the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No. 4 of 2013 establishes the Deeds and Commercial Registry as a corporate body, to establish and promote the efficient and orderly operation of the Deeds Registry and the Commercial Registry, to establish the conditions governing the employment of officers and employees of the Authority.
He noted that Section 5(1) of the Act establishes a Governing Board of the said Authority, which shall have the function of ensuring the proper and efficient performance of the functions of the Authority.
The Board is supposed to consist of a Chairman, Registrar of Deeds, Registrar of the Commercial Registry, a nominee of the Ministry of Finance, a nominee of the Ministry of Finance, a nominee of the Ministry of Housing and Water, a nominee of the Guyana Bar Association, a nominee of the Guyana Association of Legal Professionals and a nominee of the private sector. The Chairman is appointed by the Minister of Legal Affairs.
When he made the application, Nandlall said that the Board is non-functional, not properly constituted, and has not held a meeting for over a year.
Further, Nandlall stated that the conduct by the Minister not to appoint a Board constitutes multiple breaches of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act.