ATTORNEY GENERAL and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams has reiterated that Cabinet has decided that the Rodney Commission of Inquiry would have one final sitting, which he estimates would last for five days and cost some $17M.While the actual completion date is subject to consultation with the commissioners, lawyers and other parties, Williams told reporters the Commission could conclude its work by late July.

That sitting, the AG continued, could spread across five days, as two days would be set aside for submissions and the other three for compiling statements and evidence.

Since its conception by former President Donald Ramotar in 2013, the commission has been deemed a “witch-hunt” against the pre-1992 People’s National Congress (PNC) Government.

Since assuming office as Attorney General, Williams disclosed that the Commission had racked up a total expenditure in excess of $325M.

Meanwhile, Williams’s predecessor, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, has opposed assertions made by the AG regarding the life of the Rodney CoI.

“The Commission of Inquiry Act,” posited Nandlall, “vests the commission with the sole legal authority of regulating its process and procedure. It is an unlawful interference by any other authority which seeks to dictate how the commission should conduct its business.”

Nandlall lamented, “The PNC sat with the [then] Government and we had discussions regarding the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry.”

Coming out of that discussion, according to Nandlall, the two parties disagreed on the commission’s terms of reference, which included financing.

Nandlall said the Government should not be surprised by the cost of the commission up to the time of Williams’s announcement of a $325M expenditure, since monies spent were already approved in the National Assembly, which Nandlall maintained was controlled by the APNU+AFC partnership.

Nandlall said requests for monies for the Commission were approved every three months by the National Assembly up to the time that body went into suspension in late July.

He challenged the five-day proposal made by Williams to wrap up the Commission’s work. “Having regard to the number of witnesses who are still to be called, and number of witnesses who are to be recalled to give further evidence, it may be impossible to complete the taking of evidence in 5 days,” Nandlall said.

“When the taking of evidence aspect of the commission seizes,” he continued, “the commissioners will need another few months to write their reports, and the arrangement which is in place guarantees them payment for that period as well.”

Nandlall served as Attorney General under the 2011-2015 Donald Ramotar Administration during the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) 23 years in Government.

For his part, Nandlall was asked to comment on the lifespan his party had intended to give the commission. He said: “We had expected that the commission would have sat for about a month after the [May 11] elections. It would’ve taken evidence within a month, and then they would have been given a two- to three-month period maximum to present their report to the President.”

By Derwayne Wills