…says decision ignores public interest
Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams on Thursday expressed much confusion over Wednesday’s Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling which dismissed an appeal by his chambers in the $446M contractual dispute between the government and DIPCON Engineering Limited.
The CCJ dismissed the AG’s request and awarded costs to the company to the tune of US$2.2M and ordered that the judgment delivered more than two years ago be enforced. The CCJ ruled that the appeal concerns a procedural issue and does not fall within the ambit of Section 6 of the CCJ Act. In fact, the Court said Section 6 does not give a right of appeal against the Court of Appeal’s refusal to enlarge time for appealing and that the appropriate recourse in such a situation is to apply to the CCJ for special leave to appeal pursuant to section 8 of the CCJ Act.
“In the absence of acceptable justification for failing to file these applications, the Court concluded that it had no jurisdiction to allow the State to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s refusal to grant an extension of time,” the summary stated. Notwithstanding that, the Court acknowledged that it may, in a proper case, grant an extension of time to comply with the rules to avert a clear miscarriage of justice.
However, when asked to comment on the CCJ’s ruling, Williams told Guyana Chronicle that the new Civil Procedure Rules permit the granting of leave beyond the deadline for an appeal to be heard in special circumstances. “The Court is concerned about the interest of justice. The overriding objective in such cases under the new rules is to determine the issues between the parties and so that no technicality is to try to determine the issues between the two parties and so no technicality ought to come between the court and the litigants to prevent the court from going to the real subject matter,” he stated while noting that he has not yet read the judgment of Guyana’s final court of Appeal.
He reminded that the case is one inherited from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and stressed that it is clear no notice was given to the APNU+AFC coalition government until the period allotted under the rules of the Court of Appeal had expired. “Further to that there was no evidence of the file in the AG’s chambers – it is a new AG and it wasn’t until February at the Budget that I was informed by the Leader of the Opposition about the case.”
Williams said too there is a precedent established in the Court of Appeal that an extension of time to file an appeal out of time is applied for and that clearly shows the procedure if the Court of Appeal “knocks you down here” you go back to the Court of Appeal for special leave to appeal to the CCJ. “Therefore, I don’t know what is the point they are taking…I am confused that the CCJ, the highest level, would not recognise that in the public interest– this is a case involving funds from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and a claim that these people were entitled to these funds and these funds could only be made payable with the consent of the IDB.”
The AG stressed that Dipcon was operating under a fixed term contract and based on their pleadings, they received more money than stipulated in their contract sums. “Even if you don’t establish a substantial reason for why you were out of time, if you have an arguable case, if it has merit, then the court is enjoined to look at the case…” said Williams who maintained that DIPCON was not entitled to the money they claimed.
Meanwhile, Williams told reporters that the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) would be asked to probe cases where attorneys recruited to act on behalf of the state, in turn represented the intended opponent. Former AG Anil Nandlall told Guyana Chronicle that the CCJ ruling is costing tax payers’ US$2.2M and noted the money could have been saved if the case was appealed within the fixed time frame.
