Rodney CoI report to be handed over soon

By Alexis Rodney

The premature termination of the public hearings of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (CoI) is set to have a dire impact on the final report scheduled to be handed over next week.

This is according to Chairman of the Commission Sir Richard Cheltenham, who along with fellow commissioners Jamaican Queens Counsel Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Trinidad-based Guyanese Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam, met with Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams Monday.

The trio have returned to Guyana to complete the final draft of the report, to be handed to President David Granger on February 8.

Speaking to reporters at the Supreme Court Library, where the 66 sittings of the investigation took place over a 17-month period, Cheltenham repeated what he had said back in July 2015.

“The premature termination…. will mean, as I said earlier, the report will not be as thorough and it means, too, that insofar as there were some individuals who were critically commented on in the course of the evidence who did not get a chance to answer, we will be very disinclined to make critical findings of fact in relation to those who were criticized but who did not get the opportunity to answer those criticisms.”

Such individuals include former Crime Chief Cecil “Skip” Roberts, Working People’s Alliance (WPA) leader Rupert Roopnaraine and former People’s National Congress (PNC) leader Robert Corbin, who was also issued with a Salmon letter to appear before the Commissioners.

The sentiments expressed by the Commission now were already articulated last year, when the new Government made a decision to bring an end to the hearing. Government’s contention has been that too much money has already been pumped into the inquiry and that it was going nowhere.

The commission then, which also had included the legal representatives of various interests, was of the view that the abrupt end would have definitely robbed it of a comprehensive, thorough and fair outcome.

Cheltenham had said that while Commissions of Inquiry were “creatures of the executive”, the move by the David Granger Administration would not speak well for the fairness of the final report.

“The current Administration has determined that the Rodney CoI will have just two days of hearings. We feel obliged that while it is within the competence of the executive arm of Government to terminate the public hearings of the Commission, that kind of action is not at all unknown following the change of Government, in our Westminster type of Government. It must be remembered that Commissions of Inquiry are creatures of the executive,” the Barbadian Queens Counsel read from a prepared statement.

The CoI, which was convened in February 2014 by former President Donald Ramotar, has had some 66 sittings with a total of 29 witnesses giving evidence; three of whom were still to be cross-examined. The evidence of those witnesses – retired Major General Norman Mc Lean, former Police Constable Allan Gates and Holland Yearwood were said to be crucial to the investigation.

The chairman had said too that there were adverse evidence provided against many individuals who were alive, who have not been provided with an opportunity to come forward to confront that evidence and comment on it.

He said the decision of the executive to bring to an end the public hearings may well have implications for the thoroughness of the report as witnesses still to testify will not be heard and some of the terms of reference not adequately supported by testimonies so far will remain in that incomplete state.

Lawyer for Donald Rodney, Dr Rodney’s brother and the only witness, Keith Scotland said “history will be unkind to us”, as the commission was very close to the end of the hearing and the premature end would only have opened the new Government to criticism that it had “politicised” the CoI.