Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall has bemoaned the sloth in the establishment of the Law Reform Commission (LRC), while saying “millions and millions of taxpayers’ monies” have been wasted on renting a building and hiring staff for an entity that has done nothing to date.
“Since 2017, this administration brought an Act to the Parliament to establish a Law Reform Commission. Monies have been budgeted every year since, millions of dollars, a building has been rented on Robb St at the rental cost of $850,000 per month, secretarial staff has been hired and is being paid, that building incurs day to day costs such as water, power, etcetera and yet three years after not one law reform commissioner has been appointed,” he said.
“So again, you have another example of taxpayers’ dollars being wasted. Millions and millions of taxpayers’ monies wasted annually and nothing is being done,” he added.
In June of last year, Attorney-General Basil Williams SC had disclosed to the National Assembly that a building was rented and some of the Commission’s staff had been hired.
He had circulated the information, in a written response to several questions posed by Nandlall.
Williams stated that the LRC was in the “final stages of readiness,” while noting that persons have already been interviewed for the positions of Commissioners.
He said no remuneration package had been approved for members of the LRC but he did identify the positions and list the gross monthly salaries of the staff members who had been at that point: A legal officer had been hired and was being paid a gross monthly salary of $700,000; two legal clerks were each receiving $150,000; three typists were each receiving $130,000; two office assistants were each receiving $100,000; a driver was receiving $120,000; and a cleaner was receiving $75,000.
The LRC, building, which was rented from December 1st of 2017, is located at Lot 59 Robb Street, Bourda. Based on the rental agreement, which was attached to the written response, the building is owned by Michael and Michelle Wharton, residents of Peter’s Hall, East Bank Demerara. They entered into an agreement with the Government of Guyana, its representative being the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Legal Affairs Delma Nedd, on November 14th, 2017.
According to the agreement, the Whartons, identified as the landlord/s, agreed to allow the government to rent the premises from 1st December, 2017 to 30th November, 2018 inclusive, at $850,000 per month.
Additionally, as part of the agreement, the government lodged $1.7 million as a security deposit for any loss or damage to the property and this will be refunded upon completion of the tenancy. The government also agreed to pay the first two months’ rent before commencing occupancy of the building as well as to use the location solely as offices and not any “unlawful or immoral” purpose or sublet.
The agreement states that the government will pay all electricity charges, while the landlord will cover the water bill during the life of the tenancy.
Nandlall said that it was his intention that once the law revision exercise was completed, the next step was to establish the LRC, which would be a body that would be permanently established and tasked with the responsibility of advising the government on law reform, so to meet “the dynamic and changing exigencies of an evolving Guyana”.
He said that in the area of seeing the completion of the revision of the laws of this country, it seems that Williams will not continue the process started with help from the Commonwealth Secretariat and that too will be wastage.
“You will recall that in 2012, the PPP completed a complete revision of the laws of Guyana after a 35-year hiatus. This was a monumental exercise which commenced under the stewardship of attorney general Mr. Doodnauth Singh, it continued under Charles Ramson Sr. and was completed under my tenure. Justice of appeal Claudette Singh headed the project. Upon completion, understandably, there were some errors and omissions and I had set up a committee, within the Attorney General Chambers to rectify these deficiencies. This committee was headed by a retired African judge provided to the government of Guyana by the Commonwealth Secretariat free of cost,” he explained.
“By the time this exercise was completed, there was the change in government in May 2015 and after that under the current attorney general it would appear as though the committee was disbanded and the exercise aborted. Although the Attorney General made several promises in the National Assembly that he will complete this exercise. Four and half years later, this exercise has not been completed. Worst yet, law revision was expected to be a continuous exercise whereby the laws of Guyana would have been constantly updated as more laws are enacted to avoid another protracted hiatus. Unfortunately, this process was never continued under the current administration. So we already have a backlog from 2012 to 2019 and the Attorney General seems oblivious to this travesty,” he added.
