Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall is anticipating the establishment of the modified Law Reform Commission (LRC) by the end of this month.
The Government of Guyana had made amendments recently to the Commission’s composition to open up the entity to input from other sections of society. Prior to that change, the appointment of the Commissioners rested solely with the AG and the President.
“We amended the principal act to expand the scope of the Law Reform Commission; expand the membership of the commission. The one that the APNU+AFC wanted to establish was one where [Former] Attorney General and Basil Williams and President alone appoints the commission and everyone on the commission were supposed to be lawyers. We changed that. We brought in a consultative process, whereby the Private Sector, Labour Movement, Religious organisations, Rights organisations – all of them have a say, also, the Bar Association, etcetera,” Nandlall explained.
He said that these agencies have been tasked to send nominees to be part of the commission. Guyana Standard understands that the President also has the power to appoint two commissioners “in his deliberate judgment”.
“We have received all the names from the various organisations and the President has them now with him and appointments will be made very shortly, and this commission will be up and running,” he said.
Regarding the Secretariat of the Commission, Nandlall noted that vacancies were advertised for clerical staff, among others, and applications were received. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – the agency funding the exercise – has already completed the evaluation of the staff and has made recommendations “as to who will constitute the Secretariat of the Commission”.
