Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde says that since the establishment of the Law Reform Commission (LRC) in 2021, the body has released no programme of its work.
He raised these concerns yesterday during debate on the 2024 budget which amounted to a historic $1.146 trillion.
While giving his perspectives on the budget, Forde expressed dissatisfaction at how the LRC is operating as it has not published and/or indicated its readiness or interest in receiving from the public any suggestions for reforming the country’s existing laws.
“We hear Mr Speaker the government speaks about following the rule of law and up to now we have not heard a single word from the Law Reform Commission”, The Shadow Attorney General said.
According to the Member of Parliament, the LRC did not announce, submit or
identify any specific programme or areas for Law Reform.
He told the sitting of the National Assembly that according to Chairman of the Law Reform Commission Justice Beasraj Singh (BS) Roy, mistakes have crept into the 18 volumes of the Laws of Guyana.
According to Forde, this could be a reason why the commission has not been forthcoming with a report on its work or progress on reforming Guyana’s laws.
“Justice Roy noted that many of those mistakes are grammatical and typographical.
The “whole process of law revision is paramount…” These creeping mistakes occurred as a result of the incompetence of the current Attorney General in 2012, at a cost of millions of dollars”, the Shadow Attorney General told the House.
Stabroek News on Wednesday, January 17 contacted Attorney General Anil Nandlall for an update on the work of the commission. He noted that the body has completed a report which he said would be dispatched to this newspaper for reporting purposes.
To date, nothing has arrived from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The Communications Officer attached to the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Attorney General’s Chambers when contacted last evening via WhatsApp stated that the draft of the report is currently with the commissioners of the LRC for perusal in case there is a need for an amendment.
The Law Reform Commission is an advisory body to the State and can recommend to the Government of Guyana amendments to existing laws, new legislation, and the repeal of existing legislation.
The Commission was sworn in on August 11th, 2021 by President Irfaan Ali, who charged the members to ensure not only work on changes to Guyana’s archaic laws but to keep abreast with the rest of the world, particularly with an oil and gas economy set to economically transform the country.
The members of the Commission are the Chairman, retired Justice of Appeal B S Roy, Teni Housty, Clarissa Riehl, Brian O’ Toole, Emily Dodson, Roopnarine Satram, and Deenawatie Panday.
Since it was given a 3-year tenure, it means that its term in office will come to an end sometime this year.
The establishment of a Law Reform Commission is part of a fundamental component of the US$8 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded Support for the Justice System Programme.
In March 2021, Nandlall lamented what he believed had been a wastage of resources for three years by the previous APNU+AFC administration, as over $100m had gone for rental of a building and the payment of staff that had not 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.
