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Brief Remarks by Hon. Basil Williams, SC, MP at Mediation Refresher Training - 24th May, 2018
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Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Hon. Basil Williams, SC, MP .(Photo credits by Samuel Maughn)
It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning to give brief remarks at this Mediation Refreshers Training Course that is funded by the Government of Canada. This training represents a collective effort by all stakeholders to promote mediation in Guyana. I wish to thank the facilitators and participants for availing yourselves to this cause.
In an ever changing and competitive society, the importance of continuing professional development cannot be over emphasised. The world is not static, it is always evolving and it is incumbent on us to evolve with it. According to Thomas J Watson Snr, former Chairman and CEO of IBM, “There is no saturation point in education”. Refresher training is needed to ensure that the skills acquired are updated and remain current. As professionals it is important to keep abreast with the different techniques available. This will enable you to be proficient in your field. Therefore, even though most of you, if not all, are already qualified mediators, training like this one exists to ensure that you enhance your skills and abilities. Quality mediators are crucial to the successful development of mediation and they add to the utility of this dispute resolution tool.
It is pertinent to note that mediation training is not new to Guyana. Mediation was introduced in Guyana in 2003 and since then, I, along with over 60 others have been trained as mediators. That training in 2003 was facilitated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/ Guyana) through its Governance Enhancement Project. From October 2003 to sometime in 2014, close to 700 cases were referred to the Centre. At the end of 2012, according to statistics available online, 150 cases had been successfully completed. In June 2008, a group of professionals set up the Mediation Institute of Guyana, a non-governmental organisation. To date there have been over 900 cases referred to the Centre. With the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules this number will significantly increase as the Court may, on its own initiative or upon application, order any or all parties to a proceeding to participate in mediation.
It is important for mediation to be used as the delay and time consuming litigation process curtails access to justice. Mediation along with other alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) methods serves as a potent tool for resolving disputes. It has achieved success in countries like Canada, UK and the US. Even here in Guyana as the statistics reveal, Judges are utilising this tool as they see the value in it. All members of the legal profession who conduct litigation must discuss with their clients whether their disputes are suitable for ADR. Additionally, our Courts must continue to encourage persons to utilise ADR mechanisms. The proper use of mediation has the effect of reducing the backlog of cases and allows for timelier access to justice. Apart from time, it is cheaper than litigation, saves money and avoids cases being continued by appeals. It also gives persons the liberty to resolve their own disputes as mediation proceedings are not bound by the rules of evidence or any rigid procedure.
This is why awareness of mediation is absolutely necessary and training of this nature must be on-going as it sensitises the judiciary, lawyers and the wider society regarding the benefits of mediation and to dispel any doubts in their minds. They are still some who are of the belief that the legal profession would be hampered by mediation. However, it has been realised that if disputes are settled alternatively in an efficient and cost effective way then this would decrease litigation. Therefore, we must continue to hold and support training seminars and workshops that bring awareness of mediation.
Mediation is also important especially with our emerging oil sector which would require a different and better approach to dispute resolution. Those engaged in this sector will be expecting Guyana to offer an environment that is not replete with delays as every day that a matter is not resolved is money lost and this will affect our economy, competitiveness and bargaining power, as persons will be sceptical about doing business with us. Therefore, it goes without saying that in our burgeoning oil sector, steps must be taken to develop a robust alternative dispute resolution infrastructure. Stakeholders and practitioners in the oil and gas sector must see Guyana as a country that offers a justice system that is effective and efficient.
Therefore, the Government is committed towards facilitating access to justice through justice sector reform and mediation undoubtedly has a great role to play in the delivery of justice. As Guyana is on the verge of substantial economic development, work has to be done on reforming the legal system so that it is one that positively responds to the changing needs of society. The promotion of mediation is in the public interest and it is in Guyana’s interest and on behalf of the Government I would like to reiterate our unequivocal commitment to its development and use.
Finally, I wish to say that ultimately, the success of mediation will depend on its acceptance by the legal profession, other professions, the business community and the public at large. To achieve this, all concerned must gain and enhance their understanding of mediation and its advantages. To this end, this training comes at the right time. This Government remains open to working closely with the judiciary, the bar, the Mediation Center and other persons so that together we can deliver a justice system that works for the benefit of all.
PRESS STATEMENT- 23rd May, 2018
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Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Hon. Attorney General, Basil Williams S.C., MP and Consultants
On Wednesday, May 23, 2018 at the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Hon. Attorney General, Basil Williams S.C., MP met with Mr. John McKendrick and Mr. Keith Peterson, Consultants, contracted under the Support for the Criminal Justice System Programme, to discuss issues relating to overcrowding at the prisons.
Arising from those discussions were a pilot project to provide legal assistance to persons accused of minor, non-violent offenses in pre-trial detention. The project also entails training activities which seeks to strengthen legal representation skills among Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and other aid providers. The project may use supervised paralegals to provide support in various legal aid tasks in prisons and police stations. Those identified are; seeking dismissal of charges, arranging diversion where appropriate, or arguing for bail and generally avoiding procedural delays.
In addition, the discussions included the implementation of a more pro-active use of alternative sentencing by the criminal justice system. The Government may consider having prisoners deferred to a rehabilitation facility for specified treatment. To this end, a study is being carried out on the appropriate treatments of substance abuse and mental health issues.
‘Be agents of peace’ - The Chronicle Newspaper - 21st May, 2018
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Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams at the Religious Liberty Congress on Saturday evening (Photo by Andrew Weekes)
– attorney general urges religious bodies
MINISTER of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, encouraged religious organizations in Guyana to become “agents of peace” at the country’s second hosting of a Religious Liberty Congress on Saturday.
The event took place at the Central Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church and marked the closing of the session put on by the Caribbean Union Conference (CARU) of SDA.
Its conclusion was celebrated with a grand Festival of Liberty and Parade through the streets of Georgetown which included uniformed members of the Masterguide, Pathfinder and Adventurer clubs.
The some 600 marchers held banners and placards promoting religious harmony, impartiality and the congress’ theme: ‘Peaceful Co-existence: The Challenge of Diversity’.
Along with Williams, present to receive the hand salute were Junior Minister of Public Health, Karen Cummings and other CARU executive heads.
The conference began on May 16 with representatives visiting from some 10 countries to engage in discussions on religious tolerance, religious freedom, liberty of conscience and other pressing matters.
Delivering the feature address, Williams said that Guyana’s diversity should be seen as an advantage rather than a disadvantage which can result in productivity and economic growth as all work together.
He told the gathering that even as the country is replete with a history of racial division and strife, it is the church’s duty to help eliminate these common forms of animosity for the benefit of future generations.
“It is the church’s role to foster a spirit of cooperation and tolerance; inclusivity must be the order of the day and the church must be at the forefront. Togetherness is the only way that the vision of a good life for all Guyanese will be realized,” he said.
Presenting scriptural reference, the minister added that the church is entrusted with a ministry of “peace and reconciliation” which is a mission the Government is pleased to assist all religious organizations in achieving.
“Peace cannot be limited to one group, one people or all those of one belief. The work for peace must be the agenda for all of us. The Government cannot do it alone…our Government is ready and willing to work with all religious organizations to build a society that embodies the aspirations of the Guyanese people.
“A society where everyone has equal access to health, social services and education… This Government will continue to work towards the wellbeing of all Guyanese and social cohesion will be made a priority,” he affirmed.
Williams encouraged the local and international visitors to continue their efforts towards transforming their societies for the better.
At the gathering, the Attorney General who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, received greetings in song from the audience.
Executive members of the Caribbean Religious Liberty Association then presented a list of resolutions emerging from deliberations at the congress which were accepted and approved by the attending delegates.
No kickbacks - - The Chronicle Newspaper - 17th May, 2018
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Attorney General, Basil Williams (Samuel Maughn photo)
…AG rubbishes PPP’s claims on out-of-court settlements
ATTORNEY General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, SC. on Wednesday denied that his government has received “kickbacks” from out-of-court settlements since taking office in 2015, saying instead that the administration inherited a dysfunctional AG chambers, where most cases were outsourced and poor records kept.
Speaking during a media conference at his office, Williams said three years ago in what constituted a sea change in governance, the APNU+AFC Government took over from Presidents Ramotar and Jagdeo, a failed and corrupt state that was Guyana. “The inexperienced Anil Nandlall whom even his own Presidents recognised was not qualified to be awarded the dignity of Senior Counsel, had just demitted the office of Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs, having served without distinction. Nandlall left, however, a broken and divided office, characterized by two warring camps, the latter because he had taken from the DPP’s Chambers, a Counsel whom he elevated to the rank of Deputy Solicitor General, paying her a salary over a million dollars a month, with allowances in the AG’s Chambers.”
Williams said, “There is nobody who could take kickback and all of that; not in our government. The matter has to be dealt with by the subject minister and then it has to go to cabinet. We have been saying that repeatedly.”
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had accused the government of receiving kickbacks as a result of the out-of-court settlements. He contended that had the matters continue in the court, the state could have won them. “By now they would have settled cases that could potentially lead to about $85 billion of liabilities to the treasury. Already we are paying all of that,” Jagdeo told a press conference last week. Jagdeo said that the several out of court settlements were in fact being used as a conduit to pay kickbacks.
However, the AG made it clear that his government has an anti-corruption stance and its operation in all matters has been “accountable and transparent.” “How is it a kickback? To whom? To all the members of the Minister of Communities and his team, the AG Chambers and his team; the whole Cabinet?” he questioned as he made it clear that government’s
decision to settle several court matters out of court is not as a result of sinister intentions. He explained that out-of-court settlements were necessary as many of the cases inherited from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration “were incurable”. Among the cases inherited from the former administration are the Rudisha Beverages vs the AG – G$7.2B; NH International L.T.D, Emile Elias vs the AG–US$11M plus G$403M; Toolsie Persaud Ltd vs the AG–G$1.7B; Ministry of Communities vs BK Int.–US$5.7M and the NDIA vs H.Sugrim–G$226.1M.
In the Rudisha case, Williams said the former administration had imposed an environmental tax on non-returnable beverage containers in breach of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in its ruling said the Government of Guyana, represented by Nandlall, did not lead evidence to show that tax was transferred as was claimed.
In the NH INT, Emile Elias case which concerned a contract to build a road, which ended up at an adjudication which in 2003, the former government allowed to proceed without any representation, leaving Mr. Rex Mc Kay S.C alone to argue NHEE’s case before the Adjudicator.
“Nandlall confounded the problem by appealing the matter to the CCJ through Attorney-at-Law Mr. Roysdale Forde, on a point where the Government had appealed to the wrong Court. The CCJ didn’t take five minutes to dispatch the appeal,” Williams said from a prepared text Wednesday.
Additionally, Williams pointed to the BK INT matter and noted that on assuming office, he was told Nandlall had taken a decision to pay BK $225M for services rendered despite repeated breaches by BK of the Haags Bosch contract. The court had ruled in favour of BK International, who had sued the Government for breach of contract, holding that he was entitled to remain on site. Williams refused to pay that sum and caused an appeal to be filed against that decision. “Due to the site being consumed by smoke which affected neighboring Communities, and IDB wanted BK off, a settlement was agreed between BK and his team, Minister of Communities and his team and AG Williams and his team,” Williams explained. He made it clear that all of the out-of-court settlements received Cabinet’s approval.
Meanwhile, Williams said he relied heavily on the then Solicitor-General (SG) Sita Ramlall and her junior, Prithima Kissoon when he entered office. “In other words, when you appeal a matter, if the issue wasn’t argued below (in the lower court), we couldn’t raise it on appeal. What we found in many cases, you would have the defence stated but it was not argued or asserted before the court.”
The AG said too that when he took office, there was a handing-over engagement between himself and former AG, Anil Nandlall, who failed to hand over several cases which were outsourced. “Why didn’t Mr Nandlall hand over the cases that he has outsourced? Why didn’t he? If he didn’t hand over how can I go and look for cases” that were not mentioned. He reminded that the AG’s Chambers is comprised of the Solicitor-General, her deputy and a battery of lawyers “so if the SG didn’t know about the case, the Chambers didn’t know… [I couldn’t].”
Asked what would have prevented him from delegating his staff from checking the registry at the High Court, Williams said after losing the $446M Dipcon Engineering Limited case in November 2017, notices were sent to several attorneys, asking whether they are working on cases outsourced by the former administration. Lawyers written to included Roysdale Forde, Ashton Chase, Bernard De Santos, SC, Manoj Naryan, Neil Boston, Ralph Ramkarran, SC, Robin Stoby, SC, Sase Gunraj and Nigel Hughes. No response from the lawyers was forthcoming, Williams told reporters.
“After DIPCON surfaced, certain things were done. We wrote individual lawyers,…and then we wrote the court asking the court [Court of Appeal and High Court] to supply list of cases involving the AG,” said Williams, who disclosed that as a result of cases being outsourced without a trace under the former administration, an e-registry is currently being established at his office to the tune of $4M.
He explained that the matter was also placed in the hands of the Guyana Police Force to investigate, while noting that the former AG “has to be questioned by the police as to how many matters he outsourced because we cannot be discovering when judgments are made that these cases exist.”
“We asked lawyers, including the same Ashton Case, and he never disclosed that case. I believe that people need to start being charged now…anyone who continues to proceed with a case not handed over, I would take criminal action against them,” the AG said while declining to explain the grounds to which the charges could be laid. After the $1.7B judgment in the Toolsie Persaud case, Williams said Chase informed his office of the judgment. In his own defence, Williams said there was no system in place at his office indicating which attorneys were dealing with matters involving the state. “Those cases were outsourced without a trace.”
Press Statement - 16th May, 2018
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Three years ago in what constituted a sea change in governance; the APNU+AFC Government took over from Presidents Ramotar and Jagdeo, a failed and corrupt state that was Guyana.
The inexperienced Anil Nandlall whom even his own Presidents recognized was not qualified to be awarded the dignity of Senior Counsel had just demitted the office of Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs having served without distinction.
Nandlall left however a broken and divided office, characterized by two warring camps, the latter because he had taken from the DPP’s Chambers a Counsel whom he elevated to the rank of Deputy Solicitor General, paying her a salary over a million dollars a month, with allowances in the AG’s Chambers. The Counsel is Ms. Prithima Kissoon. The Solicitor General was Ms. Sita Ramlal.
Nandlall left the new Government with crippling judgment debts, and ill-prepared cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
He outsourced cases to private lawyers without leaving any trace in the AG’s Chambers, and those lawyers failed to inform or hand over those cases to the new Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, as in the Dipcon Engineering –V- AG and Toolsie Persaud-v-AG cases.
AG Williams’ set about the task of restoring the AG Chambers to those glory days it once enjoyed under the late Dr. Mohamed Shahabdeen and Keith Massiah.
AG Williams anti-corruption, accountability and transparency policies began to bite, and even Nandlall was caught with the Government’s law Books.
The Attorney General Chambers has begun to rebuild and already a new team of lawyers is showing its mettle.
There is no more gravy train at the Attorney General Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs.
We offer you hard and honest work and will improve your salaries and conditions of services. Armed with an unblemished record, the sky is the limit. Strive to be a professional public servant.
AG Williams inherited judgment debt cases from the PPP/C Government including: -
Ø Rudisha Beverages -V- AG – 7.2 Billion dollars (GC).
Ø NH International L.T.D; Emile Elias-V- AG $11M USD plus $403M (GC).
Ø Toolsie Persaud Ltd-V- AG-$1.7B (GC)
Ø Ministry of Communities—V-BK Int.-$5.7M USD
Ø NDIA –V- H.Sugrim-$226.1M (GC)
In the Rudisha Case the PPP/C Government had imposed an environmental tax on non-returnable beverage containers in breach of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The CCJ noted that the Government of Guyana represented by Nandlall did not lead evidence to show that tax was transferred as he claimed.
In the NH INT, Emile Elias case involving a contract to build a road, which ended up at an Adjudication which in 2003, the PPP/C Government, allowed to proceed without any representation, leaving Mr. Rex Mc Kay S.C alone to argue NHEE’s case before the Adjudicator. Nandlall confounded the problem by appealing the matter to the CCJ through Attorney-at-Law Mr. Roysdale Forde, on a point where the Government had appealed to the wrong Court. The CCJ didn’t take five minutes to dispatch the appeal.
In the BK INT matter, on assuming office AG Williams was told Nandlall had taken a decision to pay BK $225 million dollars for services rendered despite repeated breaches by BK of the Haags Bosch Contract.
In addition, the court ruled in favor of BK who had sued the Government for breach of contract, holding that he was entitled to remain on site. AG Williams refused to pay that sum and caused an appeal to be filed against this decision and, due to the site being consumed by smoke which affected neighboring Communities, and IDB wanted BK off, a settlement was agreed between BK and his team, Minister of Communities and his team and the AG Williams and his team. Cabinet gave its seal of approval. It is apposite to note that Nandlall failed to appreciate that his conduct in failing to act in the face of repeated breaches by BK amounted to a waiver of them.
To be continued……………………………….
