ATTORNEY General Basil Williams has defended his stewardship of the Legal Affairs Ministry saying that most of the cases he has been accused of losing were actually lost before he took them over and that his achievements at the chambers have been unprecedented.

There have been concerns that the AG Chambers has lost a number of cases, but Williams a Senior Counsel said the reverse is true as his outfit has won more cases than it has lost. He then criticised former AG and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall for suggesting that he and his officers lack the competence required to represent the state adequately.

He accepted however, that several cases have been lost during his tenure but said those cases were inherited. Additionally, he said he anticipates that many of his pending cases will be won. Nandlall over the past few months has been relentless in arguing that the AG has been unsuccessful over the past two years but on Monday during a press conference, the AG boasted that he has achieved way more than Nandlall has during his tenure. “There is nothing to show what Nandlall accomplished. What did he accomplish? Nothing!” declared Williams.

“Successes? If he is talking about cases, that is one narrow aspect…I haven’t done any case as Minister which Mr Nandlall won and in fact all the cases that I am likely to win haven’t come up,
“ the AG asserted. Williams explained that the AG Chambers has a number of lawyers who represent the state and government offices and departments but noted that when he assumed office, the entity was in disarray. “When I entered into the office, it was dysfunctional. There was a division…you didn’t know where files were. He [Nandlall] ran this place like a cook shop,” Williams declared, while pointing out that he has been able to achieve much since taking office. He pointed to the hosting of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s 46th Plenary and Working Group Meeting and the Hague Convention Conference of 2016.

Last month the President said while the state has lost many cases, there is a reasonable expectation as an attorney, to lose cases. He described Williams as a “hard working” and “very experienced lawyer.” “No one wants to lose cases and as far as I can see he is a very experienced lawyer and once you go to the court, you have to expect that the outcomes may not necessarily be in your favour…you can’t win everything,” he said noting that the Attorney General has worked hard since taking up the post in May 2015.

President Granger also does not believe the Attorney General should be blamed for the failure of the government to consistently win major cases in the court but attention should be paid to the type of representation made in the past. “He has had like some other ministers, has had to make internal changes in his ministry in order to get the best quality representation. I do not feel that in the past we had the best representation and some of the cases which we inherited were lost before we started because the representation was inadequate,” the President stated.

He posited that had there been better representation, then government “would not have lost so much money because of certain claims made against the government”.

“So I won’t blame the Minister of Legal Affairs I think that within that ministry there were some persons who were not doing their best for the government of Guyana.”

Meanwhile, Williams described his achievements as “unprecedented” and noted the adoption of the Apostille and other Conventions, efforts to reduce the prison population; the U.S. funded Legal Aid project, as well as the passage of legislation in the National Assembly which speak specifically to the financing of terrorism, money laundering, and state asset recovery.

“What I have achieved is unprecedented. No other AG has accomplished these things. What we see is here is embracing vagabonds and criticising the upright.” When questioned about government’s alleged settling of cases for kickbacks and favours, Williams called on the opposition and other critics to “bring the evidence”. He rejected outright the accusation and said, “Nandlall lacks authority to pronounce on such matters… I won’t dignify that with an answer.”