Intelligence Agency Bill presented in National Assembly

…Bill for recovering cross-border court judgements also laid

Two new Bills, one that will see the creation of legislation for the National Intelligence and Security Agency and the other that will allow for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements, were on Monday introduced to the National Assembly.

After the 63rd sitting of the National Assembly got underway, the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill, was presented to the House by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall.
“I rise to request that Bill number five of 2023, National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill 2023, be read for the first time,” the Attorney General said. Bills have to go through at least three readings before they can be passed.
When it comes to the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill, provision is made for the creation of an Intelligence Agency that will, among other things, protect Guyana against espionage, terrorism and sabotage.
The agency will also protect against agents within or outside of Guyana, as well as against foreign powers seeking to undermine the state. There is also scope for the agency to collaborate with other foreign agencies in the interest of national security.
The Bill spells out the agency’s functions, which include to “collect information of national intelligence and security interest that provides a basis for decision making and preventative actions; gather, store, process, analyse and disseminate information that is relevant to national intelligence and security; conduct analysis of information of national interest and security interest.”
Additionally, the agency’s functions are to “maintain a national database of information of national intelligence and security; conduct relevant research to enhance efficiency in information management and all matters relating to national intelligence and security; provide national intelligence estimates and intelligence and security advise to the President… provide support to investigations of matters pertaining to threats to national intelligence and security.”
In 2012, under the Donald Ramotar Administration, the Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) was established and there were calls for there to be legislation to govern this body. However, in 2015, under the David Granger presidency, this unit was integrated into the National Intelligence Security Agency established by the then APNU/AFC Government.

Reciprocal Enforcement Bill
The other legislation, the Foreign Judgements (Reciprocal Enforcement) Bill, was also introduced by the Attorney General. In this Bill, the Government will be clarifying the process for enforcing court judgements for or against persons overseas.
For instance, clause four specifies the list of judgements covered by the Act, including monetary and non-monetary judgements and civil court orders. Clause nine also allows for persons against whom a judgement is made, to seek to set it aside.
The grounds under which the foreign judgement can be set aside, include if the original court did not have the jurisdiction. Another ground for the foreign judgement to be set aside is in cases where the judgement was obtained by fraudulent means.
Last month during his “Issues in the News” show, the Attorney General had said that this Bill will be important in helping Guyana to recover payments for judgements that have been passed against companies outside of this jurisdiction.
“Soon we will pass a modern Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgement Bill in the National Assembly; we are updating our current legislations… the legislation will allow judgments from one country to be enforced in another country.”
“And once that company has assets in that country, then you recover the proceeds of your judgement in the same way as if the company had assets in the country in which the judgement was granted,” Nandlall had said. (G3)