Charges looming against Nandlall for law books – AG

As the firestorm created by former Attorney General Anil Nandlall contending that his successor, Basil Williams, threatened a judge in a courtroom continues, Williams has revealed that charges are looming against Nandlall.

The charges relate to the Commonwealth law books previously located at the Legal Affairs Ministry on Carmichael Street. An audit had been launched into the matter, though Nandlall has repeatedly said that the books were part of his service, an assertion backed up by former President Donald Ramotar.

Attorney General Basil Williams

But after a Thursday afternoon press conference, at which Williams had threatened lawsuits against two local media houses and Nandlall, Williams later said that charges were indeed also looming for the former AG.

Williams claimed that Nandlall will be charged whether or not he is a critic of his performance as Attorney General.

“He (would) say that because he is attacking me, that I’m retaliating,” the Attorney General asserted on Thursday to media operatives. “Mr Nandlall has stolen Government property and he will be charged, whether he attacks me now or never!”

Back in November 2015, the Permanent Secretary of the Legal Affairs Ministry, Indira Ananjit, was sent on 52 days leave after the law books, reportedly valued $2.5 million, were found missing. This caused an audit to be launched by the Auditor General’s office to locate the books.

Nandlall had claimed that on several occasions in the past; Williams, both in jest and seriousness, indicated “that if I continue to criticise him, publicly, he will make the issue of these books, public, obviously, in an attempt to embarrass me.”

He had continued that “unfazed by such infantile intimidation, on each occasion, I told him to proceed, since I will never compromise my duty to the people of Guyana to criticise and expose executive conduct which warrant criticisms and exposure.”

Back then, the former Attorney General had said that the disclosure by the Attorney General had come on the heels of his statement in the press in response to the legal position regarding the local authority organs where they have been tied seats. This was after the Local Government Elections (LGE).

Entitlement

Nandlall has previously explained that when he was appointed Attorney General, he requested as part of his contract of service for the Government of Guyana to stand the expense for his subscriptions for the Commonwealth Law Books. He had subscribed to Lexis Nexis, the publishers of the Law reports.

“I was subscribing to this particular law report over a decade before my appointment as Attorney General. When I was offered the position, one of the conditions I asked for is for the Government of Guyana to continue to pay the subscription of these books, because I did not want to break the subscription,” Nandlall had pointed out.

Insisting that nothing was abnormal about the practice, the former AG had argued that it was done by other Government Ministries such as Finance and Health.

He had expressed awareness that for decades prior, the Government had paid for professional and technical publications, journals, periodicals, magazines. This, he said, had been done for Ministers as well as professional and technical personnel.