One day after the High Court ordered him to pay Trinidadian construction firm, DIPCON Engineering, US$2.2 million by July 8 or face confinement for 21 days, Finance Minister Winston Jordan is challenging the judgement.
The proceedings, filed on Tuesday, asked the Appellate Court to set aside, reserve and/or vary the judgement handed down by High Court Judge Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan
Moreover, among the grounds in the Notice of Appeal was that the Trial Judge erred and misdirected herself when she proceeded to hear the application for contempt against Minister Jordan in his personal capacity for monies alleged to be owed by the State and Government of Guyana.
It was outlined that there was no action, proceeding, judgement or order made against the Finance Minister in his private capacity, hence the application was bad in law. It further stated, among other things, that the High Court Judge erred when she failed to set aside the entire proceedings, which were misconceived.
Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry
“The Learned Trial Judge, Honourable Madam Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, erred and misdirected herself in law when she omitted to set aside the entire proceedings as void abinitio (invalid from the onset); because the application is bad in law and misconceived since sections of the State Liability Act Chapter 6:05 bars the Respondent/Applicant from obtaining any coercive order against the Minister of Finance in his private or official capacity, compelling or coercing him to pay a judgement in civil proceedings against the State,” one of the grounds preferred.
Additionally, the legal document outlined that the Trial Judge erred when she refused to grant the stay of the order for contempt to permit the State and Government of Guyana to pure the process of Appeal, and that she further misdirected herself on the evidence as a whole.
On Monday, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry ordered Minister Jordan to pay DIPCON the US$2.2 million award or face jail time.
The Trinidad-based construction company had taken the Finance Minister to Court for failing to honour the payment of millions of dollars, which was awarded to DIPCON Justice Rishi Persaud in 2015.
After DIPCON took the Government to Court back in 2009 to recover monies owed for road works done, Justice Rishi Persaud had ordered Government to pay the company US$665,032.17 as payment for the works done along with US$1,563,368.50 for costs it incurred for those works, together with interest on both amounts, at a rate of six per cent per annum from February 10, 2009 to October 21, 2015 and, thereafter, at the rate of four per cent per annum until fully paid.
However, none of the payments were made to date and as such, DIPCON successfully approached the Court for an administrative order to compel the Minister to make the payment.
At the time when that proceeding was filed in May, Jordan had explained to <<<Guyana Times>>> that the company will receive the money but noted the Government needs some time.
However, during a parliamentary sitting late last month, the Finance Minister had secured some $800,000,000 in supplementary funding from the National Assembly. Jordan had informed the House that about $750,000,000 of the sum was for the Court-ordered payments to DIPCON.
