THE Miscellaneous Provisions (Judicial and Legal Service) Bill 2024 was passed via majority vote on September 9, despite claims by opposition and independent senators that it was “unfair” and “impossible” to ask them to support it without seeing a copy of the Stanley John report into the missing file at the AG's office that resulted in a $20 million default judgment in favour of nine men formerly accused of murder and kidnapping.

The government hired John and former ACP Pamela Schullera-Hinds to probe the state’s failure to defend a malicious prosecution lawsuit filed by the nine men acquitted of murdering businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman in 2006.

Speaking at a media conference after the default judgment in January 2023, Attorney General Reginald Armour claimed the Naipaul-Coolman file had “disappeared” from the Office of the Solicitor General, a day after it was served in June 2020. The file mysteriously reappeared after the default judgment.

The bill proposed restructuring divisions in the Legal Affairs Ministry, including merging the chief state solicitor and solicitor general departments.

The Government has pointed to the report and in-house issues found in during the investigation as factors contributing to the changes proposed in the bill.

It was passed in the House of Representatives on July 3, despite the opposition’s objections.

Debate began in the Senate on July 4 and was halted on July 5 as the Senate adjourned for its mid-year recess.

When debate resumed on September 9, the majority of independent and opposition senators said they should be allowed to see the report and accused the government of hiding it from the public.

Opposition senator Jayanti Lutchmedial said the government was encouraging speculation and fostering distrust by refusing to make the report public.

She said Armour’s reason for not disclosing the report was hypocritical as she pointed to the government’s attempt to lay the Stanley John report into allegations of corrupt practices surrounding the issuance of firearm users’ licences during Gary Griffith’s time as police commissioner.

John was appointed by the Police Service Commission (PSC) in August 2021 to investigate the allegations but Griffith later filed an injunction preventing the report from being laid in Parliament.

“The Attorney General said he is not disclosing it because we vilify people and so on and we make comments about them but he names the person (who produced the report).

“There are two Stanley John reports. There is one they were rushing to bring to Parliament and they ended up getting injuncted and they couldn’t lay that one. Then there is this one they want to hide. There is selective vilification of people. (It is only) when they want to vilify or find fault with somebody and run their mouth over people they could bring reports…Miss me with the selective outrage!”

She said it was unfair to deprive senators of the report and still ask them to support the bill.

“If you say there is some sort of issue or mischief you want to correct