Baksh is yet another victim of AG Williams’s political, sexist vengeance

– Nandlall

Attorney-at-Law Anil Nandlall has roasted Attorney General Basil Williams for playing a major role in the removal of acting Registrar, Azeena Baksh who is a victim of his “political and sexist vengeance”.
The following is a statement on the Azeena Baksh issue by Attorney-at-Law, Mohabir Anil Nandlall
Azeena Baksh is yet another victim of  Basil Williams’s political and sexist vengeance. Over a dozen professional women have been casualties so far. The list includes Sita Ramlall, Solicitor General; Prithima Kissoon, Deputy Solicitor General; Indira Anandjit, Permanent Secretary; Zanna Frank, Assistant Registrar of Deeds; over five (5) female State Counsel and several female secretarial and clerical staff. Azeena Baksh is the latest in the line.
The intention to remove Azeena Baksh as Registrar of Deeds was expressed by the Attorney General within weeks after he was sworn in. However, and not surprising, he did not know that she was appointed under the Constitution, by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and that he can neither dismiss nor discipline her. He got a similarly rude awakening, when he attempted to remove Zanna Frank from the position of Deputy Registrar of Deeds. Zanna Frank took him to the High Court and the Court ruled against him. He had instructed that her salaries and benefits be withheld. The Court Ordered that she be paid all her benefits and confirmed that the AG cannot remove her from office.
By this time, he had already commenced his vindictive pursuit of Azeena Baksh, harassing, intimidating her and threatening to send her on leave or dismiss her. She resisted him. She lodged a complaint with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
When this strategy failed, he begun a new method of attack, by concocting and fabricating financial wrongdoings on her part. His claim that the Legal Affairs Ministry has been requested to initiate the investigations by some department within the Deeds and Commercial Register Authority (DCRA) is utter rubbish. The complaint originated from him and he is simply using these machinations to give it legitimacy. Even the strategies that he is using are clumsy.

The allegations of financial improprieties made against Ms Baksh are as incredulous as they are nonsensical. The DCRA was established as an initiative of mine, as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, by virtue of an Act of Parliament which received unanimous support when it was enacted in 2013, a time when the APNU and AFC held a majority in the National Assembly. The intention was to merge the Deeds and Corporate Registries into a singular autonomous corporate unit, to be managed by a Governing Board. This unit is to operate without political interference; be able to raise and manage its own finances and hire and dismiss its own staff.
There was a long transformation process to transition the existing staff, who were then public servants, into employees of this new unit. Pension rights had to be protected; employees who were prepared to remain in the Public Service were transferred; those who migrated to the unit, did so on conditions that were not less favourable to that which they enjoyed as Public Servants; the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) was consulted.
In the end, every employee who migrated to this new unit did so with an increased remuneration package. Each employee continued in their respective position or was promoted. They all became employees of the unit to be paid a remuneration package, which was negotiated with them individually by a consultant who was hired for this purpose. The individual and collective remuneration packages were then approved by the Minister of Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and then by Cabinet. Thereafter, the DCRA executed individual employment contracts with these employees and they were paid the agreed upon remuneration packages.
Azeena Baksh, as Registrar of Deeds, was part of this process. Whatever remuneration package she enjoys came out of this consultative process. Whatever remuneration package she received previously, was subsumed under this new arrangement.
The allegation therefore, that Azeena Baksh paid herself monies is absolute trash. Her remuneration package was duly approved by the authorised agencies and personnel at the time.