APNU/AFC Govt spent over $68M from taxpayers to retain private lawyers

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has disclosed that millions of dollars were spent by the APNU/AFC coalition to retain private lawyers for legal advice and several legal proceedings including the series of litigations regarding the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) as well as the electoral proceedings.
Nandlall, during a press conference on Saturday, noted that these are not all the retainer contractors, whereby private lawyers were hired by the Attorney General Chambers under the coalition regime. He noted that some of these matters are political cases, which the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had contended while in opposition were largely “without merit” but his predecessor, Basil Williams, adamantly went ahead with them, filing one after another.

Nandlall posited that it was always a mystery who was funding the retention of these private legal services.
The set of retainer contracts that was disclosed by the new AG on Saturday amounted to more than $68.5 million.
These include a US$46.487.02 ($9.6 million) legal fee bill for Barbadian Queen’s Counsel (QCs) Ralph Thorne and Hal Gallop, who were retained by the APNU/AFC in 2018 to represent the State in the case challenging then President David Granger’s unilateral appointment of retired judge James Patterson as the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). The State eventually lost that case after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – Guyana’s apex court – ruled that Patterson’s unilateral appointment was unconstitutional, leading to his resignation weeks later.

QC Thorne was paid US$30,920.97 and QC Gallop received US$15,566.05 for their work in that case. According to Nandlall, this is just legal fees and does not cover flight and accommodation costs, which were all part of the retention contract.
Thorne was again retained by the AG Chambers when former Deputy Solicitor General Prithima Kissoon had filed legal proceedings to recover her salary, which was withheld while she was on administrative leave. The Barbadian Queens Counsel received $4.2 million for this matter, which the State also lost.

Attorney Michael Somersal was also paid $500,000 after he too was retained on the AG’s team for that case.

NCM hefty bill
Meanwhile, the legal challenges to the December 2018 No-Confidence Motion (NCM) had also racked up a hefty bill of legal fees, Nandlall said.
He disclosed that although the validity of the NCM was initially challenged by a private citizen, Compton Reid, the State had covered the legal fees for his lawyers – Rex McKay and Neil Boston – to the tune of $12 million.

“Compton Reid was a citizen from New Amsterdam (East Berbice-Corentyne Region) – a farmer, who claimed that he is filing this case as an interested citizen, interested in democracy… but yet the Attorney General Office has paid $12 million to Rex McKay and Neil Boston for this matter though they were appearing for a private citizen,” Nandlall posited.

Another payment of US$25,000 ($5.2 million) was also made to Grenadian Queen’s Counsel, Dr Francis Alexis, who had also represented the State in the NCM in its appellate stage. The case was appealed in both the Court of Appeal as well as the CCJ. In fact, the APNU/AFC Government had also retained former Belize Attorney General, Courtenay Coye, at the cost of US$50,000 (10.4 million) to be on its legal team before the CCJ in this matter.
Nandlall further disclosed that the law firm of Attorney Mayo Robertson, who was also on the then AG Basil Williams’ legal team in the NCM case, was paid $1.9 million and another $600,000 for in that matter.
Meanwhile, Attorney Maxwell Edwards also received $3.8 million for his services in the NCM case while on the AG’s team.
He was also retained again for another $1.8 million in the Eslyn David case that was filed post the March 2 elections seeking to block GECOM from using the figures from the National Recount to declare the elections results. That case was eventually thrown out by the CCJ, which ruled that the recount results must be the basis for GECOM’s declaration – which was eventually done and the PPP/C was declared the winner of the 2020 elections with over 15,000 votes more than the APNU/AFC.
Attorney Edwards also received $500,000 in each instance for services provided in the case filed by prominent lawyer, Christopher Ram, challenging the conduct of the House-to-House Registration exercise last year and in the case filed by former Finance Minister Winston Jordan in the Full Court of the High Court, after he was found guilty of criminal contempt and handed down a sentence of 21 days for failing to make payments awarded by the High Court to Trinidadian company, Dipcon Engineering Services Ltd.
Like him, Attorney Robertson was also retained by the AG Chambers under the previous Government in a number of litigations including the initial High Court proceedings filed by Dipcon against the State. A sum of $500,000 was paid for that matter, while a similar amount was also paid for a matter filed against the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) and the AG.
An additional $1.9 million was paid to Robertson’s firm for another case involving the MMA-ADA as well as $1 million more for another case against the AG.
On the other hand, APNU/AFC candidate and parliamentarian candidate, attorney Roysdale Forde, also received $1.7 million from the AG’s Office to represent former Minister Jordan in a private lawsuit he filed back in 2018 against then Opposition Member of Parliament, Juan Edghill. The defamation proceedings were initiated by the then Finance Minister after Edghill had brought private criminal charges against him and other Ministers over the controversial D’Urban Park project. Those charges were eventually discontinued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Nandlall also disclosed in subsequent documentation released to the media that an additional $4 million was paid to Rex McKay and Neil Boston for representing the State’s interest in appealing a $1.7 billion award of damages to Toolsie Persaud Limited (TPL) over ownership of land at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown.
Moreover, $3 million was made to Senior Counsel Stanley Moore for representing the State in the lawsuit filed by the families of the three Linden Martyrs – Ron Somerset, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis – who were killed by Police on July 18, 2012, during a protest in Linden. The court had awarded a $77 million settlement to the families of the deceased.
Meanwhile, another $2 million was spent by the coalition on retainer contractors for Attorneys-at-Law Patrice Henry, Trenton Lake, Lawrence Harris, Hewley Griffith as well as Somersall.
According to Nandlall, this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the private retainer contracts in the Attorney General Chambers. As such, he noted that the services of the Auditor General will have to be enlisted to further probe this matter. (G8)