Govt resurrecting “bogeyman” as distraction – former AG

Charges against former Ministers

Former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has dismissed recent utterances coming from Government officials about looming charges against former Ministers and officials under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) regime over “Pradoville II”, saying this is a repetitive method of lashing out whenever the coalition Administration in under the heat.

“You will note that every time the coalition Government is on the ‘back foot’ an article appears in the press that criminal charges are imminent in relation to “Pradoville II”. The coalition Government took a beating recently on a number of issues, including, the teachers’ strike action. From all indications, they will take a sound thrashing at the upcoming Local Government Elections. So once again, to distract, they have resurrected their favourite ‘bogeyman’,” Nandlall posited in a post on his Facebook on Saturday.
The former AG’s comments were in response to an article appearing in two local newspapers last week – on Saturday in the Stabroek News and on Wednesday in Kaieteur News.
With regards to the later article, Nandlall made reference to comments made by Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma who said that the former AG cleared the way for charges to be filed against those fingered in the Pradoville II probe. Minister Sharma was referring to an article Nandlall wrote last month pointing out that Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson got the entire Cabinet to violate the Procurement Act by awarding the $160 million contract to a Dutch company handpicked by Patterson to carry out a feasibility study on the new Demerara River Crossing, without any resort to the procedures mandated by the Procurement Act for such transaction.
According to Nandlall, Sharma’s utterances were just another of his “usually outrageous outbursts”.
“Charges in relation to “Pradoville II” are being bandied about by this Administration over two years ago,” the former AG posited, while adding that the Junior Finance Minister had made a similarly bizarre statement two weeks ago about the Leader of the Opposition.
In relation to Saturday’s article which speaks of looming conspiracy charges against those who benefited from house lots in ‘Pradoville II’,” Nandlall said he found this to be “interesting.”
In fact, he noted “It opens the way for Cabinet members of the coalition Government to be charged in a conspiracy for giving themselves a 50 per cent increase in salaries and indeed, for a whole host of decisions, which Cabinet made or sanctioned, including, the rental of a house in Sussex Street as a drug bond for the excessive $12.5 million per month. You would recall that Minister George Norton said Cabinet approved this contract. It is also public knowledge that Cabinet reviewed the contract but has failed to terminate it thus far,” Nandlall stressed, adding that he hopes the Junior Finance Minister notes this comments of his as well.
The former AG went on to note too that another interesting dimension to this situation would be whether only former Cabinet members are going to be charged, or non-Cabinet members such as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack; former Chief-of-Staff Gary Best; Dr Compton Bourne and so on will also be charged.
“We have to wait and see,” he asserted.
Last year, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) had arrested and questioned a number of top officials from the previous Government. Among those arrested and questioned were former President Bharrat Jagdeo, and former Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon. Other former Government officials questioned included Prime Minister and President Samuel Hinds, former Ministers Priya Manickchand, Irfaan Ali, Clement Rohee, Robert Persaud and Jennifer Westford, among others in connection to their role in the “Pradoville II” scheme, where they would have purchased lands.
The current Administration contends the transactions were a criminal act because of the belief that they were sold below market value. However, the PPP had argued that subsidised housing has always been a part of the legacy of the People’s Progressive Party and that countless Guyanese have benefited from lands sold below market value.