Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall has dismissed attacks on oil and gas deals clinched by the Ramotar administration in the run up to the 2015 general election as baseless, noting that the government had been fully empowered compared to the caretaker status of the governing APNU+AFC coalition.
Nandlall believes that the focus should be on the David Granger-led administration which not only signed “giveaway” contracts after the 2015 oil discovery but has led a caretaker government behaving as if it is fully empowered.
“As regards signing of contracts after Parliament was prorogued, is virtually a non-issue for two reasons. Firstly, these applications were pending since 2012 and 2103, long before the prorogation of Parliament. And secondly, they were simply exploration contracts when no oil was found as yet. This pales in comparison when one examines the blatant refusal by this Government to curtail any of its Executive powers after it was defeated by a No-Confidence Motion in the National Assembly and its vulgar refusal to comply with the provisions of Article 106 of the Constitution, which mandates the President and Cabinet to resign and a date fixed for elections within three months thereafter,” Nandlall said on Sunday.
