Only one month after SOCU filed charges of misconduct in public office against former APNU+AFC Minister of Health Dr. George Norton, the State will move to have them withdrawn as Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC says that Norton acted at the behest of the David Granger Cabinet and was a mere “scapegoat”.
“In Norton’s case it was clear that the APNU+AFC Cabinet made a decision to rent the premises and at that astronomical price, without any resort to the Procurement Act and procedures under the Act. With the decision being a Cabinet one, it is unfair to charge then [only] one member,” the Attorney General told Stabroek News yesterday.
He added, “We have to draw a distinction, between individual decisions and the decisions which are that of the collective government. It would set a dangerous precedent if one minister is charged for carrying out the decision of the government. Norton was really the scapegoat.”
Last month, the Guyana Police Force announced that an audit with respect to the rental of the Lot 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown warehouse facility, and which covered the period 1st July, 2016 to 30th June, 2019, had been conducted by the Audit Office of Guyana.
Pursuant to the said audit, the GPF stated, the matter was then forwarded to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) where investigations revealed that in 2016, Norton “unlawfully instructed Trevor Thomas (then Permanent Secretary) of the said Ministry not to engage the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) with respect to the tender and/or any submission of any justification for a single-source award to Linden Holding Inc. for the rental of the Lot 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown warehouse facility, for storage of pharmaceuticals, in accordance with the Procurement Act. Cap. 73:01”.
The GPF release said it was determined that Norton further instructed Thomas to prepare a Memorandum for him to take to Cabinet for its deliberation on the matter. Thereafter, the release said that Thomas received a copy of Cabinet’s decision awarding a contract to Linden Holding Inc. for the rental of its Sussex Street property for storage of pharmaceuticals. The release said that Thomas was further instructed by Norton to sign the contract for the rental of the Sussex Street Bond which he did.
It noted that the Agreement of Tenancy was made on the 20th day of July 2016 between Linden Holding Inc., with its registered office and place of business situated at Lot 1 Brickdam, Georgetown and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, for a period of three years commencing 1st June 2016, at a monthly rent of $12,500,000.
An advance payment of $37,500,000 was paid to Linden Holding Inc. (LHI). This payment represented two months’ rent and one month’s security deposit.
The release said that Norton appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, where he was not required to plead to the charges as they were indictable.
Norton was represented by attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes and Marissa Leander. He had been placed on $400,000 bail and required to lodge his passport.
Nandlall yesterday said that the decision to withdraw the case falls under the argument used by President Irfaan Ali, former Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh and former head of NICIL Winston Brasssington when charges were brought against them under the APNU+AFC administration. “We had contended that they were acting on the instructions of Cabinet…Those are the reasons why the state felt that it should not proceed,” he said.
The Attorney General noted that the decision to either proceed or discontinue will be “all left up to the DPP” but that the state will make the representation for its decision to withdraw.
