Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 15, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The Kaieteur News has published email exchanges purported to have been between the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Attorney General of Guyana and former President of the Republic, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Today I want to address a particular aspect of this alleged communication. That aspect concerns the necessity of the Commissioner General having to communicate with the Attorney General.
As far as I am aware, the Constitution of Guyana provides for the Attorney General to be the principal legal adviser to the government. Indeed the website of the Ministry of Legal Affairs outlines the functions of that Ministry to include providing advice to all government ministries and agencies. This would of course include the Guyana Revenue Authority.
But it must be borne in mind that the Guyana Revenue Authority is a body corporate. As a body corporate, the GRA has a distinct legal personality from central government ministries and agencies. As a body corporate, the GRA employs its own team of legal officers and advisers. It is not at all reliant on either the Attorney General or the Ministry of Legal Affairs. As such, one finds it strange for such a body corporate to be seeking legal advice from the Attorney General, when the GRA has its own team of legal personnel.
Indeed as was evident this week, the GRA is using its own lawyers to prosecute its case against the publisher of this newspaper, his wife and two remigrants. The GRA is not utilizing the services of the Director of Public Prosecutions in this matter. It is prosecuting the matter on its own. (The laws of Guyana still provide for the DPP to intercede in any criminal charges. The DPP has the power to withdraw charges that are without merit. It is left to be seen whether the Office of the DPP will intervene in relation to the criminal charges filed against the publisher of this newspaper and others)
Similarly, one can ask why if the Commissioner General feels that he was at any time libeled by the Kaieteur News, or for that matter any other newspaper, did he not utilize his team of lawyers within the GRA or seek his own personal lawyer to go after those who he believes libeled him. Why the need to communicate with the Attorney General? This one is baffling.
I do not believe that this is a trivial issue. Libel is personal. It has to be made against a person, and if that person feels that they need to protect their reputation, then that person should seek the advice of their personal lawyer, and not necessarily the counsel of the Attorney General or the Minister of Legal Affairs.
When President Jagdeo sued Kaieteur News for libel, the action was filed by his private lawyers and not by the Attorney General. Or am I wrong? Were the lawyers retained for the former President done so by the Ministry of Legal Affairs?
I am not aware that when Desmond Hoyte filed a multiplicity of libel actions against the media in Guyana in the 1980s, any of these were ever undertaken by the then Attorney General or Minister of Legal Affairs. But I am subject to correction, since it is a long time ago and my memory may have failed me.
Notwithstanding, there is an important principle that needs to be addressed here. If a person working for a public body corporate feels libeled and opts to sue for libel, should the libel suit be undertaken at State expense or utilizing state lawyers? For that matter should the State be involved in providing legal counsel for any officer of a body corporate who feels defamed or libeled? Just asking!
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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