Last week two events were reported that deserve some comment. The first had to do with the case between DIPCON Engineering Limited and the Attorney General (AG) of Guyana before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which the AG, Mr. Basil Williams, lost and which means that the government have to pay DIPCON US$2.2 million. He was appealing a decision by the Guyana Court of Appeal that the period within which he could have appealed the decision of the High Court had long passed. The other was a report of an email sent by Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan to the membership of the Alliance for Change (AFC) apparently seeking to quell their concerns that the party might not have been consulted about President David Granger’s unilateral choice of the chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom).
Being an ambitious politician who has not been faring very well in his portfolio and knowing that his detractors will grasp at any opportunity to magnify and deprecate his misfortune, the AG, was, to say the very least, extremely miffed by the decision of the CCJ. However, in view of the important part he is playing in the Gecom matter, Mr. Williams made an important observation to the Guyana Chronicle. To paraphrase, he claimed that the court should be ‘concerned about the interest of justice’ and that no technicality ought to prevent it from dealing with the substance of the case. He was concerned that the highest court in the Caribbean would not take sufficient account of ‘the public interest’ in making its decision (‘AG knocks CCJ DIPCON ruling:’ Chronicle. 17/11/2017).
