Director of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) Professor Clive Thomas has written to the Chief Justice asking that an application which challenges the legitimacy of the agency be urgently disposed of.
“Given the presumption of constitutionality, SARA has continued its work unabated save that no matters filed by the Agency can be addressed substantively before the Court rules in respect of the application by Mr. [Ramon] Gaskin…” Thomas said in a letter dated May 24, 2019 and addressed to Justice Roxane George SC.
Through his attorney, Devindra Kissoon, Gaskin is asking the court to grant dozens of orders and declarations, many of which relate to the State Assets Recovery Act in its entirety as well as specific sections. The main thrust of his arguments is that the Act contains illegal provisions, some of which clash with constitutional provisions and as a result, it should not be implemented. He made mention of the authority given to the National Assembly to appoint the SARA Director and Deputy Director, saying it usurps the authority of the Public Service Commission, as well as the unlawfulness of the powers given to the Director of SARA.
The application was filed on July 7, 2017 claiming 33 reliefs.
Stabroek News was informed last week that the court is yet to set a date for ruling.
“I should be most grateful if you would see it fit to address this practical challenge faced by the Agency as a matter of some urgency,” Thomas wrote.
SARA has filed ten civil recovery cases concerning the Pradoville 2 lands controversially obtained in 2010 by top officials of the then PPP/C administration including former president Bharrat Jagdeo. The hearing of those matters by the court have been stayed until the determination of Gaskin’s application. The agency has already signaled its intention to file proceedings against other allottees.
Eight matters were filed initially and this was followed by two more sometime later.
SARA’s in-house attorney Ronald Bostwick had told this newspaper last month that former attorney general Anil Nandlall, who represented some of the defendants in the first set of matters, and Kissoon, who represented the others, applied to the court for a stay of the hearing of the matters. He said that Justice Nareshwar Harnanan, who heard the application, granted a provisional stay on the agreement that they file their defence which would have paved the way for the proceedings to be stayed. The deadline for the filing of the defences was last month.
The Attorney General (AG) of Guyana, SARA and the SARA Director are listed as the respondents.
