… Attorney General files legal action
ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has filed for legal action that would “give teeth” to the ruling of Chief Justice Ian Chang which rendered the controversial Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) an entity that is not legal.
Minister Nandlall in a recent interview explained that the Chief Justice in August last year, ruled that the administration of cricket in Guyana is being run and managed by entities that have no legal personalities and therefore, they cannot own property, attract liability and enter into contracts on behalf of the GCB – conducts which this entity was engaging in.
However, these were not coercive orders; which were subsequently sought by the action filed by the Attorney General.
He said that several orders have since been granted; including orders to prevent 13 persons from holding themselves out to being representatives of the GCB and administrators of cricket in Guyana, preventing the GCB as a body from being the administrator of local cricket and restraining it from disposing of, dealing with, and/or transferring any assets (books records, cheques, microfilms, computer disks) which concern the affairs of the Board.
These persons are also restrained from accessing bank accounts in the name of or are related to the GCB which may contain funds belonging to the Board; those bank accounts have essentially been frozen.
Additionally, it also allow for premises owned, occupied, leased or possessed by these persons, to be searched for the purpose of retrieving any documents or records, books, accounts, disks or micro-chip which may contain any information or relate to the affairs of the GCB.
These orders are referred to as ‘Anton Pillar Orders’, which allow for the search of premises in an attempt to retrieve materials that could be important for a particular court proceeding. However, since these are very serious orders, they entail mechanisms to ensure that people’s rights are not abused or eroded.
To this end, an Attorney-at-Law and the Marshal of the High Court are present during the search. Moreover, the person who is affected by the order is entitled to have his/her Attorney-at-Law present as well, so as to ensure that the orders are executed in a fair and dispassionate way.
In the past, several allegations have been made against the GCB such as being involved in fraudulent elections, financial irregularities and the conduct of criminal acts.
This resulted in the Chief Justice’s ruling which also recommended the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to intervene in order to bring some type of temporary solution until a permanent one was reached, having regard to the fact that cricket is a national sport and that sport in Guyana falls under the administration of the said Ministry.
As a result of this, an Interim Management Committee (IMC) was established with specific mandates and terms of reference such as drafting a new constitution.
At the same time, a police investigation was launched to examine the allegations of financial irregularities and other issues with regard to the conduct of those who were in charge of cricket to determine whether or not they have violated any aspect of the law.
The GCB was taken possession of because it was felt that securing that premises was necessary since it housed many of the documents which are deemed critical to and would have assisted in the ongoing investigation.
Unfortunately, an order was granted by the High Court, which essentially had the effect of giving back the administrators who are being investigated, possession of the premises.
Minister Nandlall expressed that the IMC, which is being led by Clive Lloyd, “will conclude its business and its recommendations so that it can be implemented and we can put cricket administration on a legal footing because, currently, it is not being done in a legally acceptable, transparent manner.”
Meanwhile, the IMC has been holding consultations with cricket bodies across the country so that the permanent solution will be representative of the inputs of all relevant stakeholders.