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 George Norton, the State will move to have them withdrawn as Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC says that Norton acted at the behest of the David Granger Cabinet and was a mere “scapegoat”.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.”