By Prior Beharry
ATTORNEY GENERAL Reginal Armour, SC, has withdrawn the complaint filed by his predecessor against Chief Parliamentary Counsel (CPC) Ian Macintyre.
In a statement on Friday Armour said, “Today in the company of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, I am pleased to advise that we commit to a modus vivendi in advancing the important work of the Office of the Attorney General and the Minister of Legal Affairs, of which office of CPC is an integral component part.”
This comes after Macintyre had written to Armour upon assuming office asking him to withdraw the “patently unfair and baseless” complaint of his predecessor Farris Al-Rawi.
The former AG had written the Judicial and Legal Services Commission on March 16, asking it to suspend Macintyre. That was the same day that Al-Rawi was removed and replaced by Armour by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
Al-Rawi’s request had come about a rift developed between him and Macintyre. The former AG and now Minister of Rural Development and Local Government wanted Macintyre to ignore a time-honoured tradition of drafting bills only on specific policy instructions from the Cabinet or the prime minister.
In his statement, Armour said over the past three months he has engaged in the national interest and “to move beyond differences which separated the CPC and my predecessor.”
He said over the period he has met with Macintyre one-on-one in the privacy of his chambers.
Armour said, “I and Mr Maccintyre, a respected senior counsel and, accomplished professional in his specialised field have had very cordial discussions and have exchanged candid views with reference to the important constitutional responsibilities and the roles of an attorney general and a chief parliamentary counsel concerning the solemn responsibility of a democratically elected government to formulate policy and to give effect to that policy through the passage of well-drafted legislation for approval by Parliament in a timely manner.”
He said he was satisfied that he and Macintyre were committed to the national good and respected the professionalism that they must each bring to the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities.
