Dear Editor,
Attorney General, Basil Williams, launched a tirade against Stabroek News last week, alleging that the newspaper is biased against him. The main plank of his allegation is that Stabroek News was inaccurate when it reported that Mr. Williams had been mandated to report to Cabinet on his attempt to compulsorily acquire two pieces of private property located at Carmichael Street, Georgetown. Mr. Williams came out swinging against Stabroek News. He emphatically rejected that he was mandated to provide to Cabinet any such report and accused Stabroek News of gross irresponsibility.
Last Friday, Minister of State, Mr. Joseph Harmon, who is also Secretary to the Cabinet, calmly confirmed at a Press Conference, that indeed, the AG was in fact mandated to provide a report to Cabinet and is expected to do so shortly.
I cannot imagine that a Cabinet would task one of its members with an assignment and then neglect to inform this member (assuming that he is absent of course when the assignment was given) of this assignment. It therefore means, that Mr. Williams was present when the assignment was given or, he was absent and was notified of this assignment. In either scenario, it is clear that Mr. Williams deliberately lied and wrongly attacked the Stabroek News. For this, Mr. Williams owes Stabroek News a public apology.
More troubling, this is yet another example of a long line of lies being peddled brazenly and publicly by this Minister with impunity. I will list a few others.
- Mr. Williams lied when he claimed that when he took office, he “discovered” that Rudisa Beverages (NV), obtained a judgement against Guyana at the Caribbean Court of Justice. Long before this judgment was granted, I informed the National Assembly (of which Mr. Williams was a member) that the judgment would be granted unless the Customs Act was amended. I made these disclosures both in the National Assembly and repeatedly outside of the National Assembly and they were widely covered in the Press. Notwithstanding this, the APNU+AFC used their one seat majority to reject the amendment to the Customs Act, in the National Assembly, thereby causing the judgment to be granted. When the judgment was granted, it was widely covered in the Press and I spoke about it publicly ad nauseam. So, Mr. Williams’ “discovery” of this judgment when he took office is a blatant lie.
- His contention that the PPP Administration caused Guyana to be black-listed by CFATF and FATF is another lie. The nation knows that Guyana was placed in that precarious position because the APNU+AFC used their one seat majority in the Opposition, in the tenth Parliament, to vote down the various Bills tabled by the PPP/C Govt which were required to be passed in compliance with CFATF/FATF recommendations.
- When the BK International multi-million US Dollar settlement in relation to Haags Bosch became public and it was revealed that this Government agreed to pay over US$5.7 million on a mere letter threatening litigation, this AG incredulously, totally fabricated a story that the PPP/C Government had agreed to “settle” this matter and pay to BK International that sum of money. I called upon him then to produce a scintilla of evidence that the PPP/C Government had agreed to settle this case. To date, he has been unable to do so.
- Mr. Williams again lied when he was caught trying to compulsorily acquire the two private properties on Carmichael Street. His concoction this time was that the PPP/C Government had begun the process to compulsorily acquire these properties. Since compulsory acquisition is a document-driven process, I again challenged him to produce an iota of evidence that the PPP/C had started this process. To date, of course, he has been unable to do so.
Do I need to say more?
Yours faithfully,
Anil Nandlall
Former Attorney General
