Forde’s arguments that PPP breached constitution are “frivolous and without merit”

Sep 27, 2020 News

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall yesterday refuted claims put forward by Opposition Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde that the government breached the Constitution along with several sections of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act.

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall

Forde’s contention is that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) breached Article 219 (3) of the Constitution of Guyana; Section 80 (B) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act; it had failed to amend the schedule to the Act appropriately; as well as breaching the Constitution regarding the Local Government Commission.
But these allegations, according to AG, are frivolous and without merit.”
Nandlall was quick to point out that Forde that one of the key players giving advice to the previous A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration leading “the entire nation-state of Guyana to careen off the Constitutional tracks and made everything done in government illegal and unconstitutional.”
“It is a joke that Roysdale Forde,” the AG said, “one of the authors of an unconstitutional act could now come and jump on some high and legal horse to accuse the PPP/C of breaching the Constitution. It is a level of barefacedness that you can’t imagine unless you see it and hear it for yourself.”
According to Nandlall, APNU+AFC’s actions put the new administration in tough position of having to bring Guyana back within the legal

Opposition Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde

perimeters of the Constitution “and that is what we have been doing from the time we got into office.”
The government, he added, has tried to comply with the Constitution as far as reasonably practicable, citing the unconstitutional events over the last five months.
Further, he said, the PPP/C had indicated that a Statement of Expenditure would be laid in the National Assembly.
“Mr. Forde wants to lay a Statement of Expenditure in compliance with 219 (3) at the time when the Budget estimates were laid.”
That, according to the AG would be “improper, and it is wrong.”
Nandlall explained that Guyana is dealing with an “unprecedented circumstance” where there has been no fiscal package for nine months and as such, all formalities could not be satisfied.
“In these circumstances, you try to satisfy the main substance of the law,” the Attorney General said.
“The Guyanese people would be familiar with the type of advice that came from that team of which Mr. Forde was a part. In my budget presentation, I have detailed the violations and desecrations which they have done to the rule of law and the Constitution repeatedly over the past five years while in government,” the AG added.

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