Category: Letters to the editor

Posted on

News about GuySuCo’s board is troubling

The news that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is without a Board of Directors is troubling, its credibility further diminished. Unlike an entity established under the Public Corporations Act, GuySuCo’s operational law is the Companies Act and by virtue of its 1976 registration, it straddles two such Acts, the repealed Companies Act Cap. 89:01 and the Companies Act 1991.

Under the former, the appointment and terms of office of the directors are made and set by the Minister of Agriculture acting on behalf of the Government. And by virtue of the 1991 Act, the possibility that GuySuCo can have no director is virtually ruled out since the Act makes the directors the sole authority for exercising the powers and functions of the company. That Act states:

The directors of a company must—

(a) exercise the powers of the company directly or indirectly through the employees and agents of the company; and

(b) direct the management of the business and affairs of the company.

There is some indication that while there is no board there is a chairman of the board suggesting that like Atlantic Hotel Inc., GuySuCo is now a single director company. That model has proved bad enough in the case of Atlantic Hotel Inc. But even temporarily, it can be disastrous in the case of GuySuCo whose financial condition is at best precarious and which requires annual injection of public funds to stay in business.

Unfortunately, GuySuCo is not the only entity which has seen provisions of the Companies Act stretched this week. Another government company, Property Holdings Inc. held an AGM chaired by Mr. Winston Brassington, executive head of NICIL. When the legality of the presentation of financial statements for five years was questioned, Ms. Marcia Nadir-Sharma – Brassington’s deputy at NICIL – who attended the meeting as Legal Advisor to PHI, is reported to have said that the Minister of Finance had given approval for late tabling of audited financial statements.

The problem is that the Act grants such power not to a Minister but to the Registrar of Companies acting on an application by the company supported by a resolution of the directors.

Posted on

This post on Ms Manickchand’s Facebook page is frightening

“I am happy they [the three suspected bandits killed by the Police on South Road] are dead and I don’t care about the details of a post-mortem. In fact why is the state even wasting money on them? My sentiment would be the same for ALL murderers and thieves.”

These are not the words of some uneducated idiot uttered in some heated exchange in some out-of-the-way ghetto. No, it is a direct quote from the Facebook page of Ms. Jaya Manickchand, an attorney-at-law and Member of the Guyana Elections Commission. Ms. Manickchand clearly does not believe that the constitutional guarantee of presumption of innocence applies to a certain class.

Ms. Manickchand’s post also reveals her perception and bias of crime. She cannot bring herself to even consider as crime, corruption a la Pradoville 2 or the appropriation of state resources by the political class. I doubt that she even thinks that a minister of government using a gun to inflict terror on another person as a crime, or the heist of Guyana for a few. For her, no doubt, crime is exclusive to a certain class and its perpetrators without rights.

It is frightening that a member of the ruling political class could be callous enough to have such a sentiment, and worse, arrogant enough to express it to the world. But it is a measure of the depth to which Guyana has sunk that she can remain a member of the Guyana Elections Commission.

Posted on

Neither the President nor the AG is the authority for interpretation of the constitution; that is the function of the courts

The letter by Mr Anil Nandlall, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs ‘The President has untrammelled freedom to assent to and withhold assent from Bills’ (Stabroek News, September 30) addresses two principal points: first the presidential assent (or non-assent) of Bills and second, the role of the Attorney General in the process.

On the first Mr Nandlall argues that President Ramotar has an untrammelled right to withhold his assent to Bills, and cites not only the constitutions of India and the USA, and the Royal Prerogative in the United Kingdom but also refers to the oath by the President to preserve and protect the Constitution of Guyana.

I disagree both with Mr Nandlall’s arguments and his conclusions. While there is nothing wrong with citing constitutions, cases and laws from other countries, any discussion or debate on the Constitution of Guyana must be guided by its Article 8 which states in simple and clear language: “This Constitution is the supreme law of Guyana and, if any other law is inconsistent with it, that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”
Continue reading “Neither the President nor the AG is the authority for interpretation of the constitution; that is the function of the courts”

Posted on

Security firm paying less than the minimum wage

I refer to Mr Mohamed Akeel’s letter in the Stabroek News of September 20, 2013 ‘It seems as if total confusion surrounds the National Minimum Wage Order’ which suggests that the matter may not be entirely and satisfactorily resolved. I do not wish to add to that debate and have raised through the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and other channels questions concerning what I consider a highly commendable piece of legislation. I believe that the government should take those concerns into account and forestall any action that could, in any way, affect the operationalization of the Order.
Continue reading “Security firm paying less than the minimum wage”

Posted on

As a statutory body the GEA must file annual reports

I write in response to the letter by the Honourable Prime Minister (‘The Guyana Energy Agency is being reasonably well run published in SN of September 14, 2013’), which he said was written out of “a need and a duty to set the record straight, [and] dispel any erroneous concerns and doubts” created about the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA). Continue reading “As a statutory body the GEA must file annual reports”