ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Fawi is adamant that he will not reveal the fees of lawyers paid for by the State.
In the Standing Finance Committee meeting held on Monday involving all members of the House of Representatives, Al-Rawi said he cannot reveal the fees. It was the first time the SRC was held virtually and the 41 MPs were considering the supplementation of expenditure of $2.9 billion for ministries.
MP for Barataria/San Juan Saddam Hosein drilled the attorney general for information given that he was required to state the expenditures for his supplemental expenditure of his ministry of $118.9 million. This included $51 million for fees.
Hosein asked Al-Rawi to state the number of local and foreign attorneys paid by the State and further asked for a breakdown of such payments.
Al-Rawi responded that 120 local lawyers and nine foreign ones were engaged by the State.
Hosein asked for a list of attorneys paid to which Al-Rawi responded, “I can’t do that. While I have provided information which respect to every attorney who has acted for the Government, we have consistently stated that because certain matters involved ongoing works where we need first of all, consent for disclosure and we have written to all the attorneys for consent.”
He continued, “Secondly, where they are involved in matters that are on the criminal side of the equation or involve the Department of Justice or Mutual Assistance for sensitive matters or Central Authority or are on the civil side of the equation, for those reasons, we have given the entire aggregate sum and showed the hundreds of millions of dollars saved, but to condescend to that request for particulars, I regret I can’t agree with that on the basis of advice.”
And although further pressed for answers, Al-Rawi stood his ground.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert had said earlier that the aim of the meeting was to ask about matters before the Standing Finance Committee which was expenditure for this fiscal year.
The AG had said that the current administration was able to reduce inherited arrears from the People’s Partnership administration and between 2015 to 2021 approximately $387.9 million was spent by the AG’s office for legal fees and part of that went to settling arrears.
He said the UNC administration incurred $600 million in legal fees between 2010 to 2015.
