Attorney-General (AG) Basil Williams SC had more than enough time to challenge the US$2.2M judgment that Trinidad road construction company Dipcon won against government, according to his predecessor Anil Nandlall.
Nandlall yesterday denied blame for the AG’s failure to file an appeal in time and said that if government loses its fight to challenge the award Williams is solely to blame.
“Every new Attorney-General has had the duty, when he assumes office, to familiarize himself with the workings of the office, including the pending cases. I did the same. If an AG fails to do so and something goes wrong, then he must man-up and accept responsibility for his failure and negligence, rather [than] throwing child-like tantrums,” Nandllall told Sunday Stabroek in response to a news article carried in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper.
An affidavit filed in support of Williams’ application to the Guyana Court of Appeal says he was unaware of the award against the state within the time frame permitted for an appeal. Williams is now seeking leave from the court to approach the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to continue the state’s fight against the judgement.
Dipcon took the former PPP/C government to court in February of 2009 to recover sums it said it was owed along with all other costs for road construction and infrastructural works done in the Mahaica/Rosignol area.
Nandlall, in a statement to this newspaper, said yesterday that it was Williams’ incompetence that has government in its current predicament.
He said Williams continues to “clumsily blame every person under the sun, other than himself, for his manifest incompetence”.
According to Nandlall, he along with former Solicitor-General Sita Ramlal, Deputy Solicitor-General Prithima Kissoon, former Chancellor Carl Singh and the entire Court of Appeal, among others, have “all been victims of blame by the Attorney- General, in his relentless attempt to hide his ineptitude.”
He said that the “most recent example of this puerile strategy” is contained in the affidavit filed by Williams for leave to appeal to the CCJ.
Nandlall quickly pointed out that this judgment was granted since the 21st October, 2015, by Justice Rishi Persaud. “Mr. Williams has been holding the office of Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs since May, 2015, a full six (6) months before the judgment was granted. The State in these proceedings was represented by Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Roysdale Forde,” he said, before informing that the Chambers has an institutional record-keeping system that documents the status of every matter pending before the Court and the Attorney-at-Law who has conduct of the matter, whether that Attorney-at-Law is attached to the Chambers or is external to the Chambers. “It is obviously the responsibility of the AG to apprise himself of each case in the system. This current AG loves to create the impression that he is the first holder of that office. Unfortunately for him, the reality is different and the public knows that,” he stressed.
Nandlall said that in the Dipcon matter, not only was the judgment granted six months after Williams took office but that he has conceded that he learnt about it in January, 2016, a further four months after the judgment was granted. “If this was not an indictment enough, the incompetence was further compounded by the Attorney-General filing an application for an extension of time within which to file a notice of appeal, until May 12th, 2016. A further five (5) months after he admits knowing of the existence of the judgment. Therefore, the entire period of the neglect is an entire year from the time he took office,” he noted.
Nandlall said that even if one were to accept that Williams only learnt of the existence of the judgement in January, 2016, a competent Attorney-at-Law would have filed an application for an extension of time, within which to appeal within a matter of days. However, he noted that Williams took an additional five months to do so and then “blames me and the rest of the world for his plight.”
Nandlall said that in his considered opinion, the Court of Appeal was perfectly correct in dismissing Williams’ application and there is every likelihood that the CCJ would do likewise.
Senior Legal Adviser at the AG’s Chambers Judy Stuart, in her affidavit in support of Williams’ application, had said that Williams first became aware of the judgment in January, 2016, when an attorney laid over a court order for the payment of $400M with the Ministry of Finance. She further swore that the Minister of Finance did not furnish the AG with details on the judgment, the name of the attorney of law or the parties to the litigation that generated the court order.
She said that she has been advised by her attorneys at law that the application to the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal to the CCJ ought to be granted in light of the grave issues of public interest. “These issues include the economic effect of this judgment on the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and more specifically in relation to the State’s abilities to engage international donor agencies,” Stuart stated.
She added that she was advised that the AG assumed office in May, 2015 and as a consequence required some time to determine what matters were in Chambers and their status. She said that Williams will contend that as a result of the file being assigned to private counsel and the change in personnel in the post of Attorney General “there was unavoidable delay in making the application for extension of time.”
