APNU/AFC splurged on private lawyers, paid 2 officers over $100M

…wasted over $300M at Legal Affairs Ministry – AG

The former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government was on Friday hauled over the coals for wasting almost $300 million in just one Ministry, the Legal Affairs Ministry, during their five years in office.
During his budget presentation, Attorney General Anil Nandlall cited the various areas in which money was wasted. One such area was the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA). According to Nandlall, SARA and its predecessor State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU), have nothing to show for their work after being in existence for five years.

Despite its lacklustre performance, Nandlall said that its two executives – SARA Director Dr Clive Thomas and Deputy Director Aubrey Heath-Retmyer – walked away with over $100 million in personal payments during the five years in office. He described the agency as a parasite on the Treasury.
“Another agency that has a parasitic effect on the Treasury, is SARA. It has not recovered a single piece of State asset since its formation 4 years ago… Yet these two officers were allowed to draw salaries at a rate of $1 million and GY$700,000, respectively per month, with gratuity and benefits for the past 4 years,” Nandlall said.

“All that this Unit has done since its existence was to file a few cases in respect of plots of land sold by the PPP/C Administration at market value. It also filed proceedings against a leading commercial bank for a plot of land purchased from the State over a decade ago, upon which the bank has constructed a multimillion US dollar Headquarter.”
This is a reference to the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI), which won the case SARA filed against it, last year. A few months ago, the Court of Appeal also dismissed SARA’s appeal against the local financial institution. Moreover, GBTI was awarded the sum of $4.9 million in costs.
“So, in short, this Unit has accomplished nothing but has plundered from the Treasury in salaries, rental and operational costs, approximately GY$1 billion, over this period. Our Government will remove this humongous burden from the backs of taxpayers” by shutting down this Unit, shortly. Some of the staff will be absorbed by various agencies of the State,” Nandlall explained.

More wastage
Another area of wastage that Nandlall identified was the US$8 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded Criminal Justice System reform that the Ministry began administering in 2017. He noted that US$2 million was spent on the programme, with nothing to show for it.
“A staggering US$2 million was spent already from this programme, largely for the payment of expenditures, including salaries and wages, rental and costs associated with accommodation,” Nandlall explained.
“This programme was treated like a kept secret, as neither the Opposition in the Parliament, important stakeholders in society, nor the ordinary Guyanese knew what it was, until I made components of the programme public, a few weeks ago.”
Nandlall also zeroed in on the Law Reform Commission. He reminded the National Assembly that a bill came to the House since 2017, to establish a Law Reform Commission. The Commission, a statutory body which draws its powers from the Law Reform Act of 2016, is supposed to consist of three to seven members including a Chairperson.
The appointment of the members is vital to the function of the Commission, which is tasked to review, simplify, modify and systematically develop the law. But three years later, Nandlall said not a single Commissioner was appointed but the rental, payment of staff and other costs for this phantom Commission total approximately $98.3 million. As is the trend, the former Government left nothing to show for this expenditure.
“This is squandermania at its best. Aspects of the project are under review. Adjustments are likely to be made and the project is now being fully implemented. The Law Reform Commission Act will be amended to make the Commission broad-based. Currently, under the Act, the Minister and the President appoints the entire Commission without any consultation,” the Attorney General said.

Lawyers
Nandlall also bemoaned the staggering sum of $146 million that APNU/AFC forked out for the services of private lawyers, between 2017 to 2020. In fact, so extensive has been the spending that Nandlall noted that a special audit had to be undertaken by the Auditor General’s office.
According to Nandlall. These lawyers, who were hired from both Guyana and the Caribbean, were retained in a series of meritless political litigation that the Government initiated and eventually lost.
“Dozens of invoices cannot be found for lawyers retained during the melee of madness, the five months from March to August 2020, when a series of disgraceful and useless cases were filed, in an effort to get the Judiciary to conspire with the rigging cabal at Congress Place, to pervert democracy.”
“A special audit is currently being undertaken by the Auditor General’s Office, in relation to these expenditures. But from the invoice that were found, the Attorney General’s Chambers paid the staggering sum of GY$146,099,180 from 2017 to 2020, to private lawyers. This carnage of taxpayers’ dollars will be halted under this Administration,” Nandlall said.
Efforts to contact former Attorney General Basil Williams, who was excluded from the list of parliamentarians submitted by APNU/AFC for the 12th Parliament, proved futile. (G3)