2026 Former Presidents Bill restores equality – Nandlall

The Former Presidents (Benefits and Other Facilities) Bill 2026 is intended to provide equal treatment to all of the country’s past Presidents and to fix the impotent law that was passed by the former APNU/AFC Administration in 2015.

This is according to Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall in response to criticisms launched by the parliamentary opposition following the tabling of the bill last month.

During his programme ‘Issues in the News’ on Tuesday evening, AG Nandlall explained that the bill is no different from the 2009 legislative framework, which had been repealed by the APNU+AFC Government in 2015.

“The bill is simply a replication of the former President Benefit and Other Facilities Act of 2009. There has been absolutely no material addition to or subtraction therefrom,” he highlighted.

He noted that the benefits from the repealed 2009 law were reintroduced to address shortcomings in the 2015 Act. In fact, he highlighted that the benefits in the 2015 Act have never been applied.

“The bill, when it became law in 2009, applied to all living former Presidents at the time. When Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar demitted office, it applied to them as well. When Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who served as President for a period, when he demitted office, it applied to him as well. In 2015, [APNU+AFC] repealed the 2009 Act and replaced it with the former President’s Benefit and Other Facilities Act of 2015… It is common ground that the 2015 Act operated prospectively and did not operate retroactively and therefore could not have affected the benefits of any of the former Presidents,” Nandlall recalled.

Plan backfired

He reminded that the APNU+AFC, during the 2015 campaign trail, “told the people that the law will rescind all the benefits that all the former Presidents were getting”, but this plan backfired.

“And they did pass the law, but the law could not operate retroactively. So, the law had no teeth. It didn’t apply to any of the persons that it was intended to apply to. Because they passed the law to get at former President Jagdeo, to get at former President Ramotar, and to get at former President Sam Hinds. But in their usual incompetence and clumsiness, they didn’t realise that those were vested rights. That law in 2009 vested these rights to these persons. And you can’t take away vested rights, especially when it creates proprietary interests. You can’t take it away from a person. So, the law that they passed was an impotent law, in other words,” Nandlall outlined.

He further explained that the 2015 law, which has reduced benefits for former Presidents, only applied to former President David Granger when he demitted office. But Granger benefits from the entitlements outlined in the 2009 Act.

“They passed a law to target [former Presidents Ramotar, Jagdeo and Hinds], and the law ended up only applying to their President, Mr David Granger, when he left office. However, from 2020 to now, the People’s Progressive Civic Administration never applied that 2015 law to President Granger. It applied the 2009 law to President Granger. And I don’t wish to state the reasons why,” Nandlall said.

Among other things, the 2026 bill states that former Presidents, during the remainder of his or her lifetime, shall be entitled to the provision of water, electricity, and telephone services at his or her place of residence in Guyana; services of personal household staff; and services of clerical and technical staff, if requested.

It also states that they will be entitled to free medical attendance and medical treatment incurred by him or her and any dependent members of his or her family.

Former Presidents will also be entitled to full-time personal security and services of the Presidential Guard Service at his or her place of residence and the provision of motor vehicles owned and maintained by the state.

Nandlall defended these benefits and hit back at critics, contending that the very naysayers are the ones who supported the passage of a law bestowing similar benefits to former Prime Minister Hamilton Green, decades after he demitted that office.

“Hamilton Green would have left the office of Prime Minister since 1992, long before many of you who are listening to me were even born. Since then, that man left the office of the Prime Minister. In 2017, nearly 30 years after, they passed a law to give him benefits and allowances similar to that of former Presidents. And today, they are shedding crocodile-type criticism against the former President’s Facilities Bill when they did the identical thing for Hamilton Green,” the AG contended.

More glaring, he argued, is the fact that the bill was drafted solely for Green and not for any other Prime Minister.

“So, they didn’t pass a Prime Minister bill that Moses Nagamootoo, for example, could have benefited from, or Mark Phillips could have benefited from. They passed a Hamilton Green Prime Minister Bill that can only apply to Hamilton Green…On what basis is that justified or justifiable?”

Nandlall also argued that the APNU+AFC Government’s decision to repeal the 2009 Former Presidents Act was driven by political vindictiveness, adding that the current administration is simply seeking to restore the dignity of the country’s highest office.

“The truth is that in 2015, the APNU+AFC passed that 2015 Act to diminish the office of a former President and to deny a former President the dignity that the nation owes a person who has served in the high office of Executive President of this Republic. And they were driven by ill will, malice, and spite. They wanted former Presidents to suffer in dignity, and they were driven by malice and spite. They wanted to get at then-former President Jagdeo, in particular, and it backfired on them. The 2026 Bill is simply intended to remedy that deplorable state of affairs and to put every former President on even keel, including former President David Granger,” Nandlall highlighted.

“In the circumstances, the Government rejects the false narrative that is being peddled that the 2026 bill is intended only to benefit President Irfaan Ali when he demits office. The 2026 bill is intended to restore the dignity to the office of a former President and to bring certainty and equity to the entitlements of that office to ensure that all former holders of that office enjoy equal treatment,” he added.