Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, has accused sections of the opposition of spreading misinformation about the Former Presidents’ Benefits and Other Facilities Bill of 2026, insisting that the proposed legislation is not designed to benefit any one individual.
Speaking on his programme Issues in the News, Nandlall said there has been what he described as a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and distort the purpose of the bill.
“I see in certain political quarters that a deliberate campaign has been deployed designed to mislead, distort, and scandalise the former President’s Benefits and Other Facilities Bill of 2026,” Nandlall said.
The Attorney General said the bill is not new in substance, but rather mirrors the Former Presidents’ Benefits and Other Facilities Act of 2009, which was introduced to clearly define the benefits available to former Presidents after they leave office.
“First, the bill is simply a replication of the former President’s Benefits and Other Facilities Act of 2009. There has been absolutely no material addition to or subtraction therefrom,” he stated.
Nandlall explained that before the 2009 law, there was no settled legislative framework governing the benefits of former Presidents, even though some former office holders were already receiving similar benefits.
He said the 2009 law was introduced to codify, clarify and settle those benefits in legislation, rather than leaving them subject to the discretion of any sitting government.
According to Nandlall, the APNU+AFC administration repealed the 2009 Act in 2015 and replaced it with its own legislation, but that law operated prospectively and could not affect benefits already vested in former Presidents.
He argued that the 2015 legislation failed to achieve what it was intended to do.
“And they passed a law that they told the people that the law will rescind all the benefits that all the former Presidents were getting. And they did pass the law, but the law could not operate retroactively. So the law had no teeth,” Nandlall said.
The Attorney General further accused the then APNU+AFC government of targeting former PPP Presidents, but said the law ultimately only applied to former President David Granger when he demitted office.
He also pointed to the Hamilton Green Pension Bill, passed in 2017, saying it created benefits for one former Prime Minister decades after he left office.
Nandlall said the current bill is intended to bring consistency and fairness to the treatment of all former Presidents.
“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,” he said.
He rejected claims that the bill is intended to benefit President Dr. Irfaan Ali when he leaves office, saying the legislation would apply equally to all former Presidents.
“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,” Nandlall said.
The Attorney General said the Government is seeking to ensure that the benefits attached to the office are applied consistently, regardless of political affiliation.
“What we have done here is a package that will apply to all former Presidents,” he added.
