DECADES-OLD RECORDS SHOW GG ACTED ON CABINET’S ADVICE WITH COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

Decades-old records show Commissions of Inquiry have been established on the cabinet’s advice.
May 1990 entries from Antigua and Barbuda’s Extraordinary and Official Gazettes, show the then Governor General’s plans to issue a commission of public inquiry.
That inquiry focused on events surrounding arms trans-shipment through Antigua from Israel to Panama and/or Colombia.
According to the Gazette entries, the Governor General was issuing the Commission of Inquiry in accordance with the advice of cabinet.
A debate is now raging about whether the Governor General can launch a Commission of Inquiry without cabinet’s advice.
Governor General Sir Rodney Williams has received two legal opinions advising that he cannot launch a public inquiry without cabinet’s advice.
Nonetheless, the opposition United Progressive Party is demanding that he call an inquiry into what they call the “Antigua Airways/migrant-smuggling scandal.”