Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 09, 2016 News
AG notes frustration at constant delays
After almost $500 million over a period of two years being expended on the Walter Rodney Commission
of Inquiry, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Basil Williams, said he is disappointed about the delay in the handing over of the report.
The report should have been provided today but the excuse was that there was a “lack of ink” to compile photocopied documents.
“This is unfair to the President and people of Guyana.”
The Report, which was supposed to be presented to President David Granger at noon today, was not submitted because the Chairman of that Commission, Sir Richard Cheltenham, informed the Attorney General that he had run out of ink while printing the document.
This call was made even though President Granger had already arrived at the Ministry of the Presidency to facilitate the handing over of the report.
The Attorney General said that he found this totally unacceptable for any sitting President, especially given the fact that President Granger has been more than accommodating in the past months, in granting time extensions.
“I am deeply concerned. I am even more concerned that this is a Presidential Inquiry and that the President has been asked for extensions of time and every time, the President agreed.
“It is not an appropriate way to deal with the President of a country. I think the time has come for us to put a definitive end to this entire Commission of Inquiry…The President has bent over backwards on many occasions.
“It is unfair to the President and the people of Guyana to continue it… I am fed up of the entire situation,” the Attorney General said in a statement yesterday.
Minister Williams added that he found the handling of the matter by the Commissioner surprising and unfair to the Guyanese people since he had put all arrangements in place to ensure the completion of the work of the Commission, which had been set up under the previous administration.
“I didn’t understand what he meant [when he said that] because when they arrived I sought to ensure that they were properly ensconced and that they had all the relevant facilities.
“I had handed over the arrangements to Mr. [Hugh] Denbow, [the Administrator] for him to work with them so I was actually surprised that Sir Richard was saying that,” he said.
Sir Richard had requested that the handing over be rescheduled to a time later in the day but Minister Williams indicated that this arrangement seemed uncertain.
“Sir Richard was asking for any time between 16:00hrs and 18:00hrs this evening, which again sounded very iffy. And I had to come to Parliament,” he said.
With regard to outstanding payments to the Commissioners, Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston Jordan, had sought to receive copies of the contracts that had been entered into by the previous administration. However, it was revealed that those contracts were never signed.
“The cost of this Commission is almost half a billion dollars…The things that we wanted from Sir Richard included a copy of the contract that he had entered into. I understand from Sir Richard that they hadn’t any signed contract,” he said.
While the Minister expressed his exasperation at the constant delays of the Report, he noted the handing over of the report is in the hands of Sir Cheltenham.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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