UNC responds to unfair, distasteful and prejudicial attack by AG Faris Al-Rawi
The UNC wishes to categorically condemn the unfair, distasteful and prejudicial attack by AG Faris Al-Rawi and his junior Minister Stuart Young against the legal profession during their budget contribution today.
In rattling off legal fees paid to attorneys under the previous administration, no attempt was made to give a fair balanced and meaningful account. Quoting fees out of context can be quite misleading. It is therefore passing strange that they deliberately avoided any analysis of the complexity and nature of the matters, the duration of the case, the amount claimed against the state, whether the attorney was successful or not and whether legal costs were awarded in favour of the state.
The failure to give any meaningful breakdown is hypocritical and deceitful as the figures may include fees paid to forensic auditing firms, the State’s Privy Council agents in London and fees paid for lawyers hired by the Office of the DPP (which falls under the Ministry of the Attorney General), the CLICO investigation and extraditions.
The PNM has no moral authority to criticize the PP administration on the issue of legal fees. After all the PP Government inherited an avalanche of litigation from unpaid contractors on several mega projects, complex international arbitrations in the energy sector and a pile of unpaid legal bills. In many instances, the Government was forced to defend itself against massive claims brought by multi-national companies as a result of billion dollar projects that had gone belly-up such as the World GTL project in Petrotrin, the failed CLICO bailout and the Bamboo Investment deal at ETeck. These claims had the potential to hurt the country’s economy and required skilful expertise.
It is ironic that the PNM would comment on legal fees in light of its own track record. Lucrative briefs were given to a small handful of selected lawyers closely connected and related to top PNM officials. Some of those Attorneys include Michael Quamina, Stuart Young, Kerwyn Garcia and Colin Kangaloo (Husband and bother respectively of the then Minister of Legal Affairs and current President of the Senate, Ms. Christine Kangaloo) Reginald Armourer SC and Mr Douglas Mendes SC. Many of these lawyers are now representing the PNM in the election petition cases.
Whilst Al-RAwi and Young mounted the political pulpit and attacked lawyers who competently and successfully represented the State, they apparently forgot to mention how much the handful of PNM junior counsel earned during the PNM’s tenure.
For example, as a junior counsel, Mr Stuart Young was paid a whopping two million dollars in the Uff Commission of Inquiry (See Trinidad Express of April 13th 2011 “CALDER HART’S LAWYERS RAKES IN BIG BUCKS FOR UDECOTT COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY-OVER $46M SPENT”)
With respect to Mr Young’s criticism of the amount charged by junior counsel, it should be noted that former AG Garvin Nicholas had tabled in Parliament a list of fees paid by the Ministry during the period 2010-2013. In one matter, Appeal 110 of 2007 Republic Investments Limited, Mr Young charged the whopping sum of $440,883.30. In the same matter, another junior counsel Mr. Michael Quamina billed $375,666.65. In short, two PNM junior counsel charged almost $1,000,000. I challenge Minister Young to deny these facts as it forms part of the official record of the Parliament.
The PNM’s will be best remembered for its stout refusal of then PNM AG Bridgette Anisette-George (now Speaker of the House), to disclose the legal fees the PNM administration had paid with public funds because it would breach the privacy of the lawyers involved. In other words, unlike the PP administration, it was prepared to play hide and seek and protect its team of PNM lawyers from public scrutiny. Perhaps Al-Rawi and Young have forgotten but their bombastic and dramatic self serving sermon fools no one.