Dear Editor,

I WRITE in relation to an article published in the July 3, 2016 edition of the Kaieteur News under the headline ‘Government fails to collect $900M court judgement -– AG; SECL cannot be located’.I must inform you that the aforementioned headline is a malicious libel against the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs (AGMLA), Hon. Basil Williams, and the Government of Guyana (GoG).

In the ordinary meaning of the words, the headline conveys that the current Government was responsible for contracting the Indian company Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL), and encouraged that company to defraud the Guyanese people of Gy$900M by not making every effort to bring the company to account for its breaches of the Specialty Hospital contract.

The headline further suggests that your publication finds no fault with the PPP/C government’s complicity in the Surendra debacle, and is content to make the APNU/AFC government and AGMLA scapegoats for the rapacious corruption practised by the last Government.

The fact of the matter is that after we came into office, the filing, hearing and awarding of judgement against Surendra and the fleeing of the country by its officers were a done deal. Mr. Anil Nandlall did nothing to enforce the judgement against Surendra in India, nor did I inherit any files in the AG Chambers showing that he did. An accurate account of the questions and answers at my press conference of Saturday, July 2, 2016 ought to have put you in better stead.

I reject out of hand the headline of your article, and request that you either publish my letter, or a correction of the headline to read the “PPP/C government failed to collect…”

Yours truly,
BASIL WILLIAMS
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs