SOCU questions former AG over law books
– PPP/C calls probe act of intimidation
Former attorney general Anil Nandlall was yesterday questioned by Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) investigators about law books the PPP/C government reportedly purchased for him while he held office and he said that it was his public criticisms of his successor Basil Williams SC that made him a target of the agency.
Nandlall, who spent more than an hour at SOCU’s Camp Street headquarters, is maintaining that he has done nothing wrong and that the investigation is all part of a political witch-hunt being spearheaded by Williams, with whom he has been at loggerheads since the change in government.
Nandlall, who is a PPP/C executive member and parliamentarian, was allowed to leave after giving a statement.
Former president Donald Ramotar, who reportedly approved the purchase of the books, which at the time were valued at more than $1 million, is also expected to be questioned. Up to press time, this had not been done and SOCU officials gave no indication when it would be.
Meanwhile, the opposition PPP/C yesterday said it viewed the questioning of Nandlall as an act of intimidation and vindictiveness, aimed at muzzling the party.
The questioning of Nandlall prompted Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to call a press conference, during which he made it clear that the PPP will not be bullied and will continue to expose wrongdoings of the government.
At the press conference, Nandlall said SOCU investigator Trevor Reid invited him to visit the unit’s headquarters in connection with the law books. Nandlall said that he presented himself at the Camp Street location with his attorneys, Euclin Gomes, Priya Manickchand and Glen Hanoman.
He later explained that when he demitted office, like every other minister he had to meet with his successor to do a handing over of assets and other materials relevant to the ministry.
In accordance with that arrangement, Nandlall said, he met with Williams and he discussed, among other things, the arrangement arising out of negotiations with then president Ramotar for the government to take over the payment of and to continue to pay for “certain books that I was subscribing to years before my appointment. President Ramotar granted me that facility and it was not that I could have gone and buy books at will. The arrangement was confined to existing subscriptions, which I was subscribing to at the time… there was only one book that I was subscribing to and it was the Law Reports of the Commonwealth.”
He told reporters that he wrote to the London-based publisher after he got the permission of the president and informed that he would continue to subscribe but that the payment arrangement would change, with the Ministry of Legal Affairs assuming the payment and that the books being sent to his new office. He said after leaving office, he wrote to the publisher asking them to revert to the previous payment arrangement and to posts the books to his law office. “This arrangement I detailed to Basil Williams at our first meeting and in fact one of the books which I had was left in the office and I took it in his presence. He never objected to this arrangement. In fact, he said to me he wished if he was subscribing to some books so that he could have continued this arrangement.”
Nandlall said that a year after Williams began to have problems with the Permanent Secretary (PS) who had previously served under his tenure and an investigation was initiated through the Auditor General’s office into missing computer parts and missing law books.
He recalled meeting Williams in Parliament and reminding him that he had explained the situation and that the books were in his possession and not missing. He said that he reminded Williams too that he had explained about the contract under which the books were acquired and paid for.
‘Explosive’
Nandlall said the Auditor General’s findings did not implicate him nor the PS in any wrongdoing. Though the report was never made public and is in Williams’ possession, Nandlall informed that he has a copy and will make same public at some point in time.
He said that as part of his political portfolio as shadow minister for the PPP/C, he is required to be critical of Williams, scrutinise his work and expose his failures, which he has been doing. “As I started to do that our relationship begun to deteriorate and several times in the corridors of the Parliament he said he would make this law book issue a big one,” he said before adding that it reached an “explosive stage” when he filed proceedings after the local government elections and obtained several orders preventing the chairpersons appointed by the Minister of Communities to act in a number of constituencies where there had been ties.
He said that in his remarks to the press on this matter, he had said that the Attorney General was incapable of reading and understanding the clear language of the law because of the position he was adopting publicly. He said that subsequently Williams held a press conference where he spoke about missing law books and a law books scandal, which prompted him (Nandlall) to issue a detailed public statement outlining the entire transaction. Nandlall said that when the audit was being conducted, he provided an outline of the arrangement as was requested by the Auditor General. He said Ramotar also wrote to the Auditor General confirming the arrangement with respect to him acquiring the law books. “It has been downhill since. Every time a tension raises between Mr Basil Williams and myself, he resorts to these law books. When I exposed his contemptuous and disgraceful behaviour before the Honourable Franklin Holder, it hit another pitch. Then is when he started to scream that I am a thief and that I stole government property, that I would be jailed, as a result of which I filed proceedings for libel and slander,” he added.
According to Nandlall, had he gone back to private practice after leaving public office and stayed away from politics, “this would have never happened.” He said that there is no law that SOCU is looking at with respect to this matter because it cannot fall under the State Assets Recovery Agency bill, which has not been assented to and which has a value of $10 million. “So they don’t even know which section they are going under. It is all harassment. SOCU has no mandate to deal with these matters. SOCU supposed to deal with financial crimes. There is nothing financial about these law books,” he added.
Nothing in writing
Responding to questions, Nandlall informed that the arrangement made with Ramotar was an oral one and there was nothing in writing. “Ministers of the government are retained by written contracts… We were hired. You negotiate if you want specific terms outside of that, which is offered to every minister and it is granted or not granted to you. All is being done orally and the office of the president would normally communicate to your ministry [about] the specialty
arrangements,” he said.
He noted that in the absence of a written agreement, the court will have to be relied upon to resolve this issue.
Asked whether he would be willing to consider repaying or returning the law books, Nandlall was adamant that he will not do either as the books belonged to him. He questioned whether he was to refund the money government spent on his utility bills while he held office. “Am I going to refund all of those? They [the bills] were all conditions of my service. There was nothing different about this so the issue of repayment does not arise,” he said.
He said that during the questioning he told SOCU officials that his two cell phones combined are more valuable than the books now. Back then, he said, they carried a particular price (over $1 million) but because they are now outdated their value has dropped. He said that he can now purchase those 14 books for US$2,000.
“I said that if the government is so desperate …I can donate 14 books to the state. I can afford that,” he said, before stressing that he told officials that he could purchase them with his credit card and have them sent to the SOCU office as a donation to the state, Williams or whoever wants them.
“It is not about the books. It is about the principle and wanting to carve me out as having committed an offence when the transaction is as clear as day,” he said before adding he will not give them up. “They are my books,” he stressed.
Nandlall said that before he left the SOCU headquarters, he was told that the investigation will continue. He said that the books are being kept in one of his properties, which is secured. The person who has possession of the keys is abroad but will be returning to Guyana today, he added.
Jagdeo, meanwhile, charged that SOCU’s actions were designed to intimidate Nandlall. “To get him to back off from his justified criticism of this government… He has consistently exposed this Attorney General that we have that is making us the laughing stock of the world,” he said, while adding that a pattern is developing and the opposition is not prepared to “lie down and roll over.”
Jagdeo questioned how the law books issue could be priority for SOCU, which has over 300 investigations ongoing. He also questioned what he called the sudden urgency to address this particular case.
“We are not going to succumb to this. We are gonna continue to expose the government whenever and wherever they do things that will harm our country,” he added.
Moments after exiting the SOCU Headquarters, Nandlall, in an invited comment, told reporters that he has cooperated with the investigators. Asked if he believed he did anything wrong, he said “obviously not. The witch-hunting continues… This is a transaction that has nothing to do with allegations into wrongdoing. It has to do with persecuting me for what I am doing as an opposition politician. If I was quiet and I had gone back quietly to private practice and I was not doing what I am doing, this would not have been an issue. This is the political witch-hunting that we speak about frequently and continually.”
He said that many other ministers had different journals to which they subscribed and it was never an issue.
Manickchand opined that this case is an example of government continuing to flex its muscles and it is nothing more than a witch-hunt. “If there ever was one, this is one. Every time Nandlall speaks about the Attorney General or has a criticism about that office, you hear a response about I am gonna lock you up,” she said, before drawing a nexus between Nandlall’s recent court action against Williams and him being called in for questioning.