ChrisRam

February 15, 2019February 25, 2019

Ram & McRae and Christopher Ram & Associates have had numerous problems with Valuation Office

Two days ago, an anonymously written letter ‘Runaround from Government Valuation Office’ was published in your columns. Incredibly, the Ministry of Finance which has which always been too busy to address members of the public, responded in your columns yesterday by inviting the person to visit the Valuation Office “so that this issue can be resolved”. I wish that person luck.

By asking the anonymous writer to visit the same office which has been pushing that person around, the Ministry is hoping to avoid the serious issues which members of the public have with the Valuation Office. These issues need to be addressed by the Ministry and not by the same persons who engage in the mischief in the first place. Indeed, they require the intervention at the very high levels in the Ministry, including at the political and the executive levels. The absurdity of the intervention and invitation by the Ministry of Finance is that without knowing where the person lives, the PRO designated a time yesterday morning for the person to visit the Valuation Office.

February 9, 2019February 9, 2019

Constitution provides for eventuality where Gov’t and President fail to comply with Article 106 (7)

Today marks eighty-seven days since the PPP/C tabled its No Confidence Motion and fifty days since it was passed, the Government defeated, Cabinet including the President ceased to exist, and the imposition of a ninety days deadline for the Government to hold fresh elections, unless extended by a two-thirds vote of the National Assembly. All of this was confirmed by the Chief Justice more than one week ago.

The GECOM Administration and its Executive comprising the Chief Election Officer and his team are fully aware of all of this and it is only appropriate for them to explain to Guyanese their action or justify their inaction since then in relation to their duties and functions regarding elections as set out under Article 62 and 162. It certainly cannot be for want of money: their budgetary allocation for 2019 is a whopping $5,371 million. At least publicly, GECOM has shown a troubling inertia in discharging its constitutional mandate with the cancellation by the Chairman of two meetings which he was scheduled to have with the Private Sector Commission being a good example.

February 6, 2019February 7, 2019

In its determination to cling to power at any cost, the Granger Administration seems willing to abuse the legal process

Mr. Ronald Bulkan graciously seeks to educate me even as he himself seems to lack the appreciation or the understanding that two or more persons can have the same interpretation of the plain meaning and implications of the Constitution’s provisions on a No Confidence vote without being part of an “organised group”. Among the persons suspected by Mr. Bulkan of being part of that group promoting the argument that general elections must be held by March 21, 2019 are “the Private Sector Commission, AmCham Guyana and even external ones.”

Mr. Bulkan must be very dismayed that the group promoting what Mr. Bulkan still considers an argument now includes the labour movement in Guyana, almost every independent thinker in Guyana, the European Union, the United Nations and I dare say most respectfully, the Hon. Chief Justice of Guyana. Perhaps Mr. Bulkan needs to be reminded – if not educated – of the stipulation of Article 106 (7) of the Constitution which provides as follows:

“(7) Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.”

February 3, 2019February 3, 2019

The President needs to dissolve the National Assembly and demonstrate his commitment to democracy

The High Court has now pronounced on the December 21 vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly. The Honourable Chief Justice, in separate decisions in three cases arising out of the vote, reaffirmed the ruling of the Speaker of the National Assembly that the ‘yes’ vote by an AFC Member of Parliament was valid and by a majority of 33 – 32, the Cabinet, including the President, automatically fell. A further consequence of the vote was that elections must be held within the constitutional timeframe of 90 days, meaning that those elections must be held no later than March 21, 2019, less than seven weeks from today.

The decisions in all three cases were well-researched, reasoned and argued. The delivery was commanding, with a good measure of grace and gravitas that makes one easily forget that these cases were started and completed within a fortnight, all by a single judge. By any standard, that is not only remarkable but probably unprecedented in Guyana’s legal history. If any proof was required to justify the confirmation of her position, the Chief Justice not only met but over the four hours of her oral delivery, exceeded the standard. It is time that we end this farce that seems to condemn their Honours Yonnette Cummings-Edwards and Roxane George-Wiltshire to acting positions.

Within the three cases, there was one other major issue decided by the Chief Justice. And that is that under Article 155 of the Constitution, a person who by his/her own act acquires a passport of a foreign power or state, cannot be a candidate for membership in the National Assembly. The effect is that members of both the APNU+AFC and the PPP/C who hold such dual citizenship can no longer sit in the National Assembly, and perhaps, more practically, those persons have to decide, well before the new elections, whether or not to give up their prized foreign passports.

Vice President Carl Greenidge, Minister Joseph Harmon and Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira have admitted to being foreign passport holders and can no longer remain a member of this current Parliament which is still to be dissolved. There is word that Ms Volda Lawrence is also the holder of a foreign passport, a matter which she needs to address with a simple admission or denial. Incredibly, Opposition members Messrs. Odinga Lumumba and Adrian Anamayah do not seem to know whether they are citizens and the Leader of the PPP/C List for the 2015 elections should call on them to clarify their status. Unless they do so immediately, they should be removed from the National Assembly. This applies too to Professor Harold Lutchman, the Leader of the APNU+AFC List for the 2015 elections.

January 30, 2019January 31, 2019

Mr Davis wrongly stated that gov’t take from oil contract is 60%

Stabroek News letter writer Mr. Patrick Davis `We must be clear-eyed about how detrimental tearing up contracts could be’ (Sunday Stabroek, January 27) attempts to disparage Dr. Jan Mangal, accusing him of “confusing and disingenuous claims about economic development, business sector stability, and the terms of our current oil contracts”. Mr. Davis is of course free to entertain as valid and good for his economic development the neoliberal view that we must open our arms and our Treasury to foreign investors demanding generous concessions and favourable conditions while paying remuneration to locals they would not dare to pay in their home countries. What he is not free to do is use the public space to distort the oil contracts and their consequences to the patrimony and wellbeing of our country or to recklessly seek to accuse others.

Mr. Davis states that “there is little to suggest that the contract we signed in 2016 is ‘unfair’. He then claims, boldly but wrongly, that the “government take … [is] approximately 60 per cent” and that “is by all accounts on par with other frontier countries that were untested territory prior to discovery.” How much more uninformed someone can be is hard to imagine, unless that someone has just arrived from Mars or beyond and has missed all the discussions, debates, columns and letters on the Oil Contract which had been kept hidden for eighteen months.