Judges wanted to see if political parties had support

Ministers at CCJ Trinidad

Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon on Thursday confirmed that the decision was made by Cabinet to send Government Ministers to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) hearing of the Validity of the No-confidence Motion against the Government.

Harmon made this disclosure during his post-Cabinet media briefing in response to questions posed by media operatives.
He said the trip to the CCJ was official and funded by the Government of Guyana as the Ministers were sent to represent the said Government.
He explained that it was necessary for the Ministers to attend the hearings as Judges presiding in the matter would have been looking to see the party’s interest in the matter and whether they attended or not.
This is in addition to the legal representation the Government would have had there. He added that the decision was made after long and careful deliberations by Cabinet.
The Ministers that attended the CCJ hearing were Education Minister Nicolette Henry; Public Service Minister Tabitha Sarrabo-Halley; Business Minister Haimraj Rajkumar; Vice President Sydney Allicock; and Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton.
The Government has come under much scrutiny for this move as none of the Ministers is in any way connected with the cases, nor is any one of them legally trained.
Attorney Christopher Ram has also criticised the Government for sending the Ministers there and called for the Finance Minister to give taxpayers a full account of the expenditure incurred during the trip.
“There is no apparent reason for any of the Ministers to be in Trinidad as a spectator of court proceedings that were live streamed and could have been accessible from any place in Guyana. One suggestion was a show of force to the Court or moral support for the Attorney General (AG), hardly a justification for their presence. Responsible Government requires that taxpayers’ money is properly spent and fully accounted for,” Ram had stated.
So far, the Attorney General has retained at least five Senior Counsels from abroad who command very high fees.
Guyana is awaiting the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Caribbean Community’s highest court, on the Co-confidence Motion appeals.
That ruling will ultimately decide if the coalition Government will continue its term in office, or if elections have to be held before the 2020 due date.
The Trinidad-based court entertained arguments over a two-day period – May 9 and May 10 – on the matters brought before them.
There were the likes of Trinidad and Tobago-based Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, who along with former Belizean Attorney General Courtenay presented arguments on behalf of the Opposition and Government respectively.
Their Guyanese counterparts included Attorney General Basil Williams, Attorney Anil Nandlall, Senior Counsel Neil Boston, Attorneys Sanjeev Datadin, Kamal Ramkarran and others.
Apart from President Saunders, the panel of Judges comprised Justices Winston Anderson, Jacob Wit, David Hayton and Maureen Rajnauth-Lee.