Press Statement - 8th January, 2018

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Published: 08 January 2018

Law school conspiracy - The Chronicle Newspaper - 10th December, 2017

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Published: 19 December 2017

Law school conspiracy - by Admin - December 10, 2017

Attorney General, Basil Williams

… AG sees PPP’s hand in stalling law school set up

A REVIEW Committee of the Council for Legal Education (CLE) has agreed that the Council should defer the establishment of new law schools; a move Guyana’s Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, believes is as a result of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) move to sabotage Guyana’s efforts to establish its own law school.

In January, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of Guyana and the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) and Law College of the Americas (LCA) was signed with the aim of establishing a law school here.
The school would bear the name, JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas (JHLSA) after the late outstanding Guyanese Jurist, JOF Haynes. It would afford the holders of Bachelors of Law Degrees (LLB) to obtain their Legal Education Certificate (LEC) here without having to travel to Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica.

The Government of Guyana will hold 30 per cent shares, and will contribute only the land where the school is to be built, while its partner will hold 70 per cent shares and will foot all other costs. The school is likely to be located at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown.
However, in a statement to the media Saturday, the AG said new Chairman of the CLE, Reginald Armour, of Trinidad and Tobago “is relying on a report of a Review Committee which included former Chancellor Carl Singh, to now say that the CLE never gave permission to Guyana to establish its own Law School after decades in the belief of the Guyanese legal fraternity.”

The former Chancellor was the only Head of Judiciary on the Review Committee established in 2009 and was allowed to continue to serve on it by the new Chairman, until his removal was requested as he had retired from that office, at the last CLE Council Meeting held in Trinidad and Tobago from September 7 to 9, 2017.

According to the AG, the Review Committee which was set up for a different purpose, suddenly reopened a decision of a Council Meeting in Antigua in September 2016, chaired by previous Chairman Jacqueline Samuels-Brown S.C., of Jamaica, who concluded after considering several documents, including an unauthorised letter of inquiry by one Trevor Hamilton of Jamaica, that some “determination had been made.”
That is, granting Guyana permission to establish a Law School.

The Review Committee comprised the Principals of the three Law Schools under the CLE; a Senior Counsel from Barbados; former Chancellor Carl Singh, and the new Chairman.
Guyana’s delegation at the September, 2016 meeting of the CLE in Antigua included Madam Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Chancellor (ag); President of the Bar Association, Ms. Gem Sandford-Johnson; Secretary of the said Bar, Ms. Excellence Dazzle and AG Williams S.C.

“This determination by the immediate past Chairman, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown S.C. was carried by the Council Meeting which included the new Chairman who did not demur,” said Williams.
It is as a result of the decision of the Council that Guyana entered into the MoU with the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) and the Law College of the Americas (LCA) on January 11, this year.

The MoU provides for a feasibility study to be undertaken to determine whether the Joint Venture Partners should proceed to execute the establishment of the Joseph Haynes Law School (JHLS) here.
In light of this, Guyana and its partners pursued the feasibility study and made a request to Chairman Amour to provide Guyana formally with the criteria to operate the local law school. This was not done.

“…but he has not done so and has raised some other purported concerns of the Review Committee to wit, “It was agreed that Council should defer establishing new Law Schools.”
Williams noted that the Review Committee’s view does not represent a decision of the Council and said the matter will be placed on the agenda of the next CLE Executive Council Meeting, in 2018.

MASSIVE ATTACK
Meanwhile, it should be noted that on January 16, 2017, former AG and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall “launched a massive attack against the establishment of such a school”.

It was at that press conference that Nandlall disclosed that he had written the CLE to oppose the initiative geared at removing the hardships suffered by Guyanese law students attending the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) in Trinidad and Tobago.

Executive Member of the PPP, Anil Nandlall

Nandlall at that press conference said, “The Council of Legal Education is an institution within CARICOM. There are three (3) law schools established under this arrangement: the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago, the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas. By signing this MoU is Guyana not violating its treaty obligations with its Caribbean counterparts?”

A week later, the new CLE Chair indicated to Williams that Nandall had complained to him via email dated January 21, 2017 about the signed MoU to establish the law school here.
“Mr.  Armour assured Mr. Nandlall he would put the matter on the agenda of the CLE’s Executive Council Meeting to be held in Jamaica on January 27, 2017,” AG Williams was informed that he requested that the matter raised by Nandlall be placed on the agenda of the January 27 meeting.

On the said day of the meeting, Nandlall in a statement to the media denied he made a move to block the establishment of the law school, while noting that the CLE learnt of the signing of the MOU for the new law school via the media.
The AG said when he arrived in Jamaica for the Executive Council Meeting of the CLE, “He was accosted by the new Chairman, Armour, who handed him a letter dated 26th January, 2017 captioned “Media Statement on Guyana Law School”.

Armour reportedly told Williams that he had sent copies to all media houses across the Caribbean Region after a meeting with the Review Committee which was one day prior.

The media statement said, “No decision has been made by the Council of Legal Education (Council) on the establishment of a Law School in Guyana under the auspices of Council.” Williams believes that the media statement came “in direct response or support of the PPP/C’s contentions.”

Williams said he questioned the motive of the statement, given that Guyana was not given a hearing either at the Executive Council or the CLE meeting. In response, Armour told him that the former Guyanese Chancellor was a member of the Review Committee.
“Armour never told AG Williams whether Singh participated via teleconference, Skype or in person,” the statement added. Notwithstanding, Williams said he briefed the Attorneys General present at the meeting who supported Guyana’s position and directed the Chairman to recall his media statement forthwith, which he did.

“The CLE determined that Guyana would conduct its feasibility study but incorporate the requirements of the CLE that a law school under its auspices must satisfy, Williams stated Saturday.

Guyanese students reading for the Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) are required to pay  an increased tuition fee of TT$94,000 or US$15,000 or G$3M.
In addition to tuition, Guyanese students have to pay for rent, meals, books and travelling in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Further, between 2009 and 2015 the Guyanese Law Students’ suffering increased and it was uncertain each year whether the paltry 25 places HWLS was offering would be available to them despite both HWLS and the Norman Manley Law School churning out over 200 Law students every year.”

Williams noted that it was not until the APNU+AFC government entered office in May 2015, that the Collaborative Agreement between the University of Guyana (UG) and the University of the West Indies (UWI/CLE), guaranteeing 25 places to Guyanese Law Students for 3 years, was signed. That agreement was signed in 2016.
Attempts to contact Nandlall Saturday proved futile.

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams S.C, - 11th December, 2017 - Budget Presentation 2018

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Published: 12 December 2017

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams S.C,  - Budget Presentation 2018

Case files missing at AG chambers - The Chronicles Newspaper - 8th December, 2017

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Published: 08 December 2017

Case files missing at AG chambers - by Admin - December 8, 2017

Attorney General, Basil Williams

…firm contracted to build customized electronic case management software

AMID the disappearance of case files the Ministry of Legal Affairs has contracted a local information technology development and consultancy company to design, build and deploy a customized electronic case management software, which will streamline court cases within the Attorney General’s Chambers.

This was announced last evening in the National Assembly by Attorney General, Basil Williams when he made his contributions to the budget debates. Williams had previously complained about the disorganised manner in which things were done at the chambers by his predecessor, Anil Nandlall.

Williams told the House that last year 191 pending court matters engaged the attention of the law officers of the State for the period prior to December, 2016. For the period of 1st January – 5th December, 2017, 352 new matters were filed for the period under review making a grand total of 543 matters, engaging the attention of the Attorney General’s Chambers. Of this number, thirty-eight per cent of the litigations was filed by the Attorney General’s Chambers, whilst the remaining sixty-two per cent (62%) was filed by the other litigating parties. Of this number, a total of 110 cases were concluded as follows: Forty-five were dismissed or discontinued; thirty-seven judgments granted in favour of the State with and without cost and twenty-eight judgments granted in favour of other litigating parties.

Additionally, Williams told the House that a total of eighty-four new appeal cases were filed for the period 1st January – 30th October, 2017, thirty-three were filed by the Attorney General’s Chambers and fifty-one were filed against the Attorney General. At the Caribbean Court of Justice, he said five matters are ongoing for the period 1st January to 30th October, 2017.

Not a true reflection 
“It should be noted that this is not a true reflection of all the matters currently engaging the courts. Prior to the accession to office of the Attorney General, there was no database which listed current litigation and its status. An attempt to do this was initiated in 2013 and the data has since been gathered and is presently being compiled,” Williams disclosed. He said these matters relate to actions filed against the State going as far back as the year 1998. He said the former Solicitor General, Sita Ramlall had introduced a central filing room to better manage and protect the State’s files. “Notwithstanding the AGMLA discovered that many files were missing and could not be accounted for,” Williams said.

He said with the new case management software court cases will be streamlined as it will feature: provision to capture all events, documents, correspondences and pertinent information for each case; develop a calendar of all scheduled events for all cases showing the assigned team as well; provision to easily search and retrieve all case information and documents; develop templates to prepare standard documents during the case lifecycle; provision to maintain contact information for involved parties and security to ensure case information can only be viewed by authorised individuals.

Minister Williams said the software will be installed on a server provided and managed by the E-Government Unit of the Ministry of Pubic Telecommunication. “It will be accessible from all computers within the MOLA via the E-Government Unit providing high speed network connection between the two offices. This approach avoids wasteful duplication of resources by making use of the State entity with the resources and expertise to manage the computing infrastructure.”

AG meets with Victoria Villagers to address concerns- The Kaieteur Newspaper - 28th November, 2017

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Published: 28 November 2017

AG meets with Victoria Villagers to address concerns

On Sunday, Attorney General (AG), Basil Williams held a meeting at the Victoria Primary School, East Coast Demerara. The AG was invited by the Victoria #1 Group and the Victoria Youth Group. The meeting was to provide a forum for villagers to voice their concerns about various issues that were affecting them.
At the meeting, Williams spoke about plans to develop villages across Guyana. This government, he said, is encouraging the development and empowerment of youths across Guyana as well. On the oil and gas discovery, Williams urged villagers to encourage their children to invest in education in oil and gas related fields.
He explained that there will be need for chemists, biologists among other personnel. He noted that Guyanese should be the ones benefitting from the oil and gas discovery and that we need to start making the right steps to capitalise from this opportunity.

Hon. Basil Williams in Victoria Village on Sunday

Williams said that President, David Granger wants a green state and Victoria has a history of being productive, especially as it relates to crop production. The President, he said, also wants to capitalise on the usage of solar energy and the government is also encouraging agro-processing. Agro-processing is refers to the manufacturing of raw agriculture materials into different products.
After the AG’s address, one villager complained that he has been tendering for contracts for a number of years and he has never been successful. He also said that there is a communication problem between different political parties and the public. He suggested that the problem be solved “with more rigid correspondence.”
Williams explained to the concerned villager that tender contracts have very strict requirements and that persons need to know these before applying. He also informed them that the government has a training programme for persons that are interested in tendering contracts.
Another villager commended the work of the APNU/AFC government. She said that the previous government had promised to fashion the community centre to accommodate an educational and recreational facility.
These promises, she said, were never met. She believes it was because the community was not a PPP supporter in elections. She also said that it is not just the young persons in the community that need development. She believes that the older folks need recreational centres as much as the youths. The AG acknowledged her concerns and said that it was great insight.
Some of the other issues the villagers talked about were the importance of agriculture and the need for factories where young people can manufacture items and later market their produce; assisting farmers to acquire land; unemployment; the poor state of the Belfield Road and the unfulfilled promise of an IT Hub in the village.
In response to the IT Hub, Williams told the villagers that Cathy Hughes is the Minister of Telecommunications to contact in relation to that and she could better explain that issue.
He also reminded villagers that Local Government Elections would be next year. He encouraged them to take the necessary precautions to prepare for the elections.
The meeting concluded with the AG thanking the villagers for a “healthy interactive session” and a promised that Williams would revisit the community to see the Belfield Road with which the villagers had an issue.