OPPOSITION MPs walked out from the National Assembly around midnight on Friday after PPP front-bencher Anil Nandlall was evicted by the Speaker for being unable to produce evidence to support a claim he made during the sitting.Members of both sides of the House were at the time debating President David Granger’s October 13, 2016 speech.
During the debate, Nandlall made reference to the President’s speech in which the Head of State noted that there were inherited judgments which the current administration is facing. Nandlall said that the state will always attract liabilities, noting that some cases have been in the legal system for some 20 years.
He then shed light on the Haags Bosch landfill issue as it relates to BK international. “And then BK project, no judgment was ever granted to BK under this government”, he said on the landfill site. “BK apparently, we learnt through mistake or error I believe from the Honourable Minister of Communities, that BK sent, and this was obviously a staged thing, a threatening letter and he got $5.7B,” he said. He was corrected by other Opposition MPs that the figure was in fact $1.7B.
However, Bulkan and Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams termed Nandlall’s claims erroneous and the latter was asked to withdraw the statement. Nandlall said that there was no judgment in the case involving BK and the government regarding the landfill site, but rather a settlement with government and he noted that the information regarding the $1.7B sum was reported in the print media.
He noted too that Minister Bulkan mentioned the figure in the National Assembly, but later said that he was unsure of whether the issue was mentioned in the House and even noted that he could not recall where Bulkan made mention of the incident.
Minister Bulkan stood up and asked that the statement be withdrawn on the grounds that it was erroneous.”Mr Speaker, in relation to the very settlement that the Honourable Member is speaking about, all of the questions that were posed in this House in relation to that issue were answered by me and the records were there to show,” Bulkan said
Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, requested of Nandlall that he produce evidence to support his claims as the latter maintained his position. He then requested another hour to produce evidence as he asked for time to go home for the newspaper report to substantiate his claims.
By then a fired-up Nandlall , looking in the direction of the Speaker , compared the ongoing situation to him being asked to produce his driver’s licence, to which some MPs gasped.
The Speaker then asked that he produce the evidence or take his seat, to which he chose the latter, noting that he will not withdraw his statement.
The Speaker then said that Nandlall was out of order and that he would no longer participate in the day’s sitting, to which Nandlall said he did not intend to.
It was then that the Speaker added, “then you will leave.”
Opposition MPs subsequently rose from their seats and engaged and shouted across the aisle in a raucous manner. The Speaker urged them to leave the House, as they chose to, in a way that would not disturb the proceedings.
Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who departed after her colleagues, told the National Assembly that the PPP/C was unprepared for Friday’s sitting, given the short notice it had received. As such, she said the party’s truncated participation in the debate would not have occurred.