Former Commissioner of Customs Danville Walker has suffered a blow in his challenge of the powers of the Contractor General to investigate his handling of a government ban on scrap mental shipments.
A High Court judge, on Friday afternoon threw out an application by Mr Walker's attorneys for Judicial Review of the powers of the Contractor General.
Mr Walker, who is under investigation by the OCG for his handling of the controversial scrap metal ban, had sought Judicial Review to challenge the jurisdiction of the Contractor General to order him to provide information on the scrap metal shipments.
Mr Walker's attorneys Dr Lloyd Barnett and Keith Bishop, had contended that the Contractor General had no such powers. However, the judge was not convinced by their submissions and refused the application. The attorneys have been granted leave to appeal. Following howls of protests last year that the Customs boss had allowed 97 shipments of scrap metal to leave the country during the government imposed ban, the Contractor General entered the matter and requested that Mr Walker provided information on the shipments. The former Customs head who had failed to supply the information on a timely basis, after resigning his post to run on the JLP's ticket, has since been charged with obstructing the OCG in his investigation. That matter is now before the Corporate Area Criminal Court.