Former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall yesterday confirmed that law books were bought for him by the Legal Affairs Ministry during his tenure, according to an agreement he had with the then government before taking up his position.
However, Nandlall, in a statement, said he saw nothing wrong with the arrangement and that there had been precedents for it.
Nandlall was responding to the revelation by Attorney General Basil Williams that former president Donald Ramotar, in a letter to Auditor General Deodat Sharma, indicated that he had entered into an arrangement with Nandlall to have the books purchased with funds from the ministry. Nandlall, in the statement yesterday, said he believes Williams would have been aware of the development since January, but only made the announcement now in an attempt to stop him (Nandlall) from making public statements about him and the government.
Williams revealed the information after he was asked by a journalist during a press conference on Thursday, about the status of Legal Affairs Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Indira Anandjit, who was sent on 52 days’ leave after it was discovered that millions of dollars in law books and computer parts were missing,.
According to Nandlall, 12 years ago he commenced subscribing to LexisNexis UK, publishers of the Commonwealth Law Reports.
“In discussions which I had with… Ramotar, immediately prior to my appointment as attorney general and minister of legal affairs, I specifically requested, as a condition of my service, that the Government of Guyana take over payment arrangements for these books during my tenure as a minister. This was agreed upon as a condition of my service…,” Nandlall said in his statement.
According to him, he is aware that for decades prior that the Government of Guyana, through its various agencies, paid for professional and technical publications, journals, periodicals and magazines for ministers and professional and technical personnel, as standard operational expenditure. He said he had informed Williams of this arrangement and he did not raise any objections at the time. Nandlall said that after reading press reports of the PS being sent on leave over the missing law books, he contacted Williams, who told him to stay “out of the matter and that this is a matter between him and the Permanent Secretary.”
Approached by the Auditor General, Nandlall said, he provided his response in writing and Ramotar also wrote a letter confirming the condition of his contract of service in respect of the books and as a result no adverse finding was made against him or the PS.
“This seemed to have enraged the Attorney General and he enquired of me why I defended the Permanent Secretary. It became more than obvious that the removal of the Permanent Secretary was his ultimate objective and that my intervention was an obstacle. However, I felt compelled to defend an innocent professional woman who was, obviously, the victim of a political vendetta. For this, I offer no regret,” Nandlall claimed in his statement.
On Thursday, Williams revealed that the law books would have been provided for in the budget of the Ministry but were not in the possession of the ministry. Williams said the second day after the PS went on leave, vouchers were found confirming the disappearance of the books even though they were authorised by her for payment.
“He [Ramotar] is sending [the letter] to save the PS, as I understand, by saying she is not culpable or blameworthy because he had an agreement with Nandlall, who was AG, that Nandlall could use the ministry’s money to buy these books and keep them…,” Williams said.
He added that he did not understand why a former president would write admitting that he was in breach of all the financial regulations.
“We don’t accept the excuse given by the Auditor General that the former President Ramotar could have a private agreement with the former Attorney-General to spend the state’s money for his own personal benefit. And I don’t know if, being a former president, he might believe that he has immunity… from actions taken but it is one of the strangest things you will find in any part of the world that an arrangement could be made between two government officials to spend public monies… for private purposes,” Williams added.
