… as Govt negotiates another multibillion-dollar settlement
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has handed down yet another judgment against the Guyana Government, this time to the tune of $2.8 billion, but the Administration has begun negotiations to see if a lower settlement could be reached.
This was confirmed by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, who on Saturday told Guyana Times, the decision to negotiate was as a result of a decision taken at the level of Cabinet.
The court proceedings against the Guyana Government were filed by a Trinidadian company – NH International – which secured judgment last year.
AG Basil Williams
The Attorney General during a brief interview with this publication said he was mandated by Cabinet to negotiate a lower settlement.
Asked about a possible refusal on the part of NH International to accept a lower settlement and the possibility of Guyana being found in contempt, the Attorney General made it clear that “the CCJ don’t have enforcement powers against us.”
He nonetheless committed to abiding with the judgment, calling it another of the ‘inherited burdens’ from the previous Administration.
The matter was first filed in 2007 by Trinidadian based NH International, which claimed that the Guyana Government had breached its contractual obligations with the company.
The then Attorney General – the late Doodnauth Singh – had originally defended Guyana’s interest in the matter, which was appealed over the years, all the way to the CCJ.
Minister Williams told Guyana Times there was not much information to divulge since negotiations are ongoing.
Williams in recent days had been lamenting the state of affairs where several large judgments have been awarded against the Guyana Government, repeatedly blaming the previous Administration. He recently told a Government information service, “what we have found with these cases that we have inherited is that when you actually look at the cases, little or no effort was put in to defend and represent the State in these cases.”
The NH International judgment is but one in a string of judgments against the Guyana Government recently.
Other prominent cases include Suriname-based RUDISA Beverages which was awarded US$7.72 million by the CCJ after it challenged the environmental taxes charged on each bottle of beverage it imported into Guyana.
The coalition Government had on that occasion also negotiated a lower settlement with the Surinamese company agreeing to accept US$6.22 million.
According to Williams, Cabinet has authorised the method of negotiating reduction in the judgments it has inherited. Local beverage giant Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) and contracting firm BK International were also recently awarded large judgments against the Guyana Government.
Williams’ predecessor, Anil Nandlall, this past week retaliated, when by way of a public missive, he lambasted Government’s approach to settling legal matters.
“There is no other Government in the Commonwealth that has settled more cases and paid out more public funds, as a consequence thereof, over a 16-month period than the coalition Government,” Nandlall said.
According to the former Attorney General, the current Administration has demonstrated such an incomparable proclivity and haste to dole out public funds and write off debts owed to the State, that it puts a strain on the rational mind not to conclude, “that either incompetence overwhelms or, that there is a corrupt motive, or both.”
Nandlall in questioning the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government’s approach, pointed to an observation made in the RUDISA matter.
The former Attorney General pointed out that, during the hearing of this matter, a senior functionary of the distributor of RUDISA’s products in Guyana, admitted under cross examination, that the products imported were under-valued by RUDISA before shipped to Guyana, in order to compete with Guyanese products.
“By this admission, RUDISA was guilty of under-invoicing and, therefore, never pay the correct amount in taxes on these products.”
Nandlall surmised that if an assessment is to be done, using the market value of those products, RUDISA would be indebted to Guyana in the billions.
These monies, he said, can be set off against the judgment and in the end, Guyana would not have had to pay a cent and “RUDISA may still have been indebted to us.”
Nandlall said while this approach was not public knowledge, this was the strategy of his Administration – a plan that was made known to the APNU/AFC successors which opted instead to pay the judgment.
He pointed too to the ‘suspect’ handling of the DDL and BK International matters.
