By the end of April this year, the Law Reform Commission of Guyana is expected to begin its work since staffing and preparation of a building are being worked on, Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday announced.
“It means to the ordinary Joe that any student, lawyer, lecturer, researcher, public officer or the ordinary citizens of Guyana wanting to consult with the laws of Guyana, to edify themselves on such laws, in any particular endeavour, will find it a remarkably simple process; by simply going to the volumes of the law, knowing that it is updated as of the date when the exercise is to be completed,” Nandlall told Stabroek News yesterday.
“We have advertised vacancies and are looking at that … once the time expires for these applications and they are processed, the commission will be swiftly appointed along with the Secretariat and should become operational soon. They should be settled in and commence work by the end of April,” he added.
Nandlall said that it is expected that about 15 persons will be hired to form the staff of the secretariat and they will operate from the former Ministry of Sports building on Middle Street, Georgetown, cutting an $800,000 per month budget for rental.
He further explained that the other positions in the Secretariat of the Commission, including a Chief Executive Officer, an accountant, two research assistants and legal advisor/draftsperson, have been advertised in the national papers. Only one commissioner will be a full-time staff member as per the laws of this country.
The Law Reform Commission (Amendment) Bill was passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President last month, the week before the National Budget was presented. This has now paved the way for the Commission to be established and staffed.
“Pursuant to the amendment, letters were sent to all the entities which are required by the new amendment to be consulted, inviting them to submit to the Ministry of Legal Affairs, two nominees each for consideration to be appointed. These agencies include the Private Sector Commission, the Labour Movement, the religious community, the constitutional rights commissions, the judiciary organisations representing the legal profession, the Guyana Human Rights Association and the National Toshaos Council,” Nandlall related.
He said that in the correspondence sent to these organisations, the qualifications of intended nominees were set out, as expressed in the amendment. These include persons who are judges or are qualified to be a judge, persons with ten years’ experience and qualified in the area of economics, banking, and commerce, persons who have 10 or more years’ experience and training in the natural or social sciences and persons who have training and experience in law enforcement.
The Law Reform Commission, once established, will undertake the reform and development of all the laws applicable to Guyana by way of modification, the elimination of anomalies, the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary enactments, the reduction of the number of separate enactments and generally the simplification and modernization of the law.
Every decade
The Attorney General noted that most Commonwealth countries update their laws at least once every decade. However, this country had its most recent reform process in 2012, after 35 years.
He believes that this has contributed to the flummoxing of the majority of persons on the laws of Guyana, as some are not only archaic but confusing and intertwined.
“You may recall that during the March 3rd 2020 elections impasse, which had several cases filed in relation to the elections , Chief Justice (Roxane) George had lamented the state of Guyana’s electoral laws, in particular those dealing with registration of electors as they were expressed in several pieces of amendments; some of them, colliding with each other. This revision exercise is intended to address those and similar difficulties,” Nandlall explained.
“So for example, we have passed amendments recently to the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act and a new Hire Purchase Bill has been laid in the National Assembly and sent to a special committee. In the law revision exercise, the amendments to the Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration Act have to be incorporated physically into the principal Act, to become part of that Act. Similarly, once the Hire Purchase Bill is completed by the Select Committee and is passed by the Parliament, it will be added to the Laws of Guyana as a new statute,” he added.
Currently, according to the Attorney General, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council has requested an updated copy of all the laws relating to the municipality but his office “cannot accede to that request because what is requested is simply not available”, he said.
With over $100M expended in three years by the previous government on a law reform commission that was never activated, Nandall said that taxpayers can rest assured that their monies would be now put to good use. And after 2022, the government takes over funding of the project from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Nandlall lamented what he believed has been a wastage of resources for the past three years, as over $100M has gone for rental of a building and the payment of staff that have not to date done any work for the Commission.
“This exercise is funded as part of the IDB’s loan programme under the rubric of support for the criminal justice system. The expenses of the commission, will be paid for under the loan programme for the rest of this financial year and will be taken over by the government of Guyana from the year 2022. It will be recalled that in 2017, the previous government had passed the Law Reform Commission Act, and although they budgeted money every year, rented a building for $800,000 a month, appointed a number of clerical staff, a driver and purchased a brand new vehicle, no commissioner was ever appointed but the commission expended over $100M simply in rent, electricity and other (expenditure) and salary. A total waste of taxpayers’ dollars!” he contended
He said that he wants it known that the staff hired for the Commission were not terminated but incorporated into the Ministry of Legal Affairs, as he feels that they should not be blamed for any part of the process.
