In this section, we highlight issues and pronouncements from earlier years which remain unresolved. Of course it is not always easy to determine whether subsequent omission is any indication that the issue has been dropped or simply not completed.
Last year we noted that however many matters of details are addressed, roads built or loan agreements signed, unless the fundamental challenges facing the country are confronted, the rapid advances required by our country after decades of mis-governance will never materialise. Accordingly, in 2012 Focus we expanded the section Unfinished Business to include a sub-section called National Business.
Prior Year Issues
Let us start with some good news. The Office of Ombudsman was finally filled with the swearing in of former Justice Winston Moore, several years after the last holder demitted office. With no budgetary allocation in 2013, the Office has had a slow start but hopefully will pick up with the allocation of $35 million in the 2014 Budget.
The state of the Laws of Guyana made some last lap strides with the publication in February 2014 of a 2010 Edition of the Laws of Guyana, thirty-seven years since the last update. The revision was carried out under an IDB-funded Modernisation of the Justice Administration Systems project.
The price per set of $825,000 therefore seems both unjustifiable and exorbitant to all but practising lawyers and corporate Guyana. If the citizens are expected to know and obey the laws of the Country they have a right to know what those laws are. The laws of almost every country are available on the internet and there is no reason why Guyana should be an exception.
Law Reform
Law reform is of course different from law revision and requires considerable more work of a policy nature. Hopefully now that the law revision project is complete, the Attorney General will turn his attention to the following matters, all of which were promised in earlier years.
■ Review of the Companies Act, the Partnership Act, the Business Names (Registration) Act and the Friendly Societies Act
– Our experience with the Companies Act suggests a number of areas for amendments, including insolvency provisions.
– Introduction of laws to regulate Non-governmental Organisations, Charities and not-for profit companies. Provisions in the earlier Companies Act for companies limited by guarantee and companies without share capital have been repealed and not replaced forcing lawyers use all creative skills to circumvent these lacunae.
– The recent threat by the Ministry of Labour to strike off roughly two hundred Co-operatives suggests that the existing legislation may be too onerous. The Co-operative Societies Act and the Friendly Societies Act which dates back to 1948 and 1894 respectively should be reviewed if such entities are to develop without strangulating statutory rules.
■ Action plan based on the Labour Market Study as addressed in the Draft 2005 PRSP Progress Report
Surely with the need to realign available skills with the market needs, such a survey should be accorded high priority. For the first time, Guyana seems to be a large importer of labour, with our private hospitals and construction now dominated by non-Guyanese. We need to put our people to work but first we must train them not only for the low-level jobs but those requiring skills and paying adequate remuneration. This should be a priority of the Ministry of Labour.
■ Establishment of a family court – May 2010 was the date set to be the first inauguration. First it was the building, then it was the Rules. Both have been completed. Surely anyone reading the newspapers would know how important it is to have this court operating. It is also a waste of money to have buildings and assets laying idle.
Hopefully, 2014 will see the court becoming a reality.
■ Review of tax exemptions and establishment of a tax court – Following his election, President Ramotar had announced a three man tax review committee made up of two persons from the private sector, including the Chairman of the Committee, and one from the public sector. More than two years after, there is no word whether the Committee has completed its work and submitted a report, despite the resounding call by private sector respondents to Ram & McRae’s mini-pre-budget survey for reform in this area.
■ Judicial Reform – Earlier this year and responding to calls by Guyanese Caribbean Court of Justice Madame Desiree Bernard for an increase in the number of judges, the Attorney General introduced legislation to increase the number of judges to twenty. It is unclear how the government proposes to attract practising attorneys to take up judicial position, often at significant financial sacrifice.
While Ram & McRae believes that the number of judges needs to be increased, we consider that attention must to be paid to the conditions under which judges work and the rules under which the Guyana courts operate. Guyana is probably the only country in the region that still uses what were known as the Rules of the Supreme Court. Draft new Rules have been around for some years now and some decisive action needs to be taken on this matter.
What became embarrassingly plain earlier this year with the resignation of a recently appointed Court of Appeal Judge is that the Judicial Service Commission itself may not even have been properly constituted and had itself become a problem.
Judicial reform and the enforcement of justice are complementary. The Government needs to act on the recommendations of the Disciplined Forces Commission Report completed several years ago. The dysfunction is palpable with poor investigating capacity leading to too many guilty persons escaping justice. The price society pays is that justice is meted out in the streets with contract killings becoming increasingly frequent.
■ National Drug Strategy Master Plan – There has been no mention of this plan while the drug kings (and queens?) are never pursued.
■ The Institutional Strengthening Project in the Audit Office– The Audit Office has long lost its independence and its annual reports often lack imagination, initiative and penetrative investigation that is so badly needed in a country that ranks so poorly for perceived corruption. Issues of conflicts of interest and too few professionally qualified staff still exist while the audit capabilities in ministries and departments are either non-existent or dangerously weak.
Negotiations began in 2005 on a Double Taxation Treaty with Kuwait and in 2010 we heard that Guyana was finalising this agreement. We have also heard about discussions for treaties with India (since 2004), the Seychelles, Syria, Jordan and Cyprus (the latter three since 2009). No update has, so far, been received.
Passed in 2010, the Judicial Review Act has still not been bought into operation.
In 2012, sums amounting to $79,619,478 withdrawn by the Minister of Finance from the Contingencies Fund were not reimbursed by the National Assembly. With no precedent for this, the amount seems to be left in limbo.
National Issues:
Every oath taken by the President, Ministers and Members of parliament speaks of obedience to the Constitution. It must be a national shame that these very persons ignore important provisions and mandatory requirements of the Constitution. President Ramotar has added to the list laws passed by the National Assembly to which he has refused to give his assent or return them to the Speaker with his reasons – as required by the Constitution. His party has failed to nominate persons to the Public Procurement Commission over a period of twelve years while the citizens have been deprived of their constitutional right to local government elections, also guaranteed by the Constitution.
Also outstanding are the Local Government elections; reform of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the existing model of which, called the [President] Carter-Price Model was intended to be used for the 1992 elections only. One can only assume that both the PPP/C and APNU are quite happy with the status quo.
On the constitutional issues, the parliamentary opposition and especially the APNU must take much of the blame. It campaigned on a platform that committed to constitutional changes but has failed to deliver on that commitment. It must realise that the Constitution places too much power in the hands of the President and the Executive. It has failed to play its part in fixing the problems of the judiciary and seems out of ideas on dealing with two acting appointments at the top of the judiciary on which the Constitution requires the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition.
We believe therefore that the Constitutional Reform Commission should be constituted forthwith.
Legislation to reform the telecommunications continues to be delayed while the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act is stalled owing to Government intransigence.
