By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE MP for Arouca/Maloney Camille Robinson-Regis is reminding Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar of all the legal discrepancies made under her former attorney general Anand Ramlogan.
She has described Persad-Bissessar’s comments on Monday night as “disgraceful, despicable, and disrespectful.”
Robinson-Regis, in a press release on Wednesday said, “Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has yet again demonstrated her deliberate ignorance and shamelessness by attacking genuine attorneys seeking the interest of the State.”
The minister who holds other portfolios including Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives and Lady Vice Chairman of the People’s National Movement (PNM) referred to Persad-Bissessar, as a “self-appointed silk.”
On Monday, during the United National Congress (UNC) virtual forum, Persad-Bissessar lambasted the senior attorneys of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) who voted in favour of Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, saying many of them received state briefs and benefitted from the PNM Government.
Robinson-Regis said, “I wish to remind Persad-Bissessar, that under her watch, legal fees amounting to $1.4 billion in taxpayers’ dollars were consistently spent on her friends benefitting from the State largesse. It was under Persad-Bissessar’s watch, selected legal friends cost this country millions of dollars due to baseless, meritless litigation undertaken by her then attorney general, now the misbehaviour in public office accused Anand Ramlogan.”
She mentioned several cases in which concerns were raised including remarks made by then High Court Judge Vasheist Kokaram on July 8, 2015 at the Port of Spain High Court, where he advised attorneys about the dangers of initiating “ill-advised litigation.”
Robinson-Regis said, “Perhaps the Opposition Leader has forgotten that her handpicked, corruption accused former AG, had conduct of most of those legal fee expenses, for Petrotrin, UDeCOTT, University of T&T, Eteck, and T&TEC.”
She also said the maximum annual allocation to hire private counsel was $40 million, but in less than two years, the sum escalated to over $200 million under Persad-Bissessar’s tenure as Prime Minister.
Robinson-Regis said, “When the People’s National Movement (PNM) came into office in 2015, a value for money audit exercise on the expenditure for legal fees commenced where it was discovered that less than bona fide payments were made totalling millions of dollars paid to selected attorneys.”
She continued, “One attorney was paid $60 million and $1.3million earned by another who was eight months out of law school. It was also discovered and raised in the public domain that friends of Persad-Bissessar and corruption-accused Ramlogan billed the State millions of dollars for legal matters despite never attending to the said matters in Court. Unsurprisingly they were still very well paid.”
Robinson-Regis said, “The Opposition Leader will do well to remember the lack of standards, ethics, morals, nepotism, cronyism, transparency, and accountability can in no way be attributed to this Government regarding State briefs.”
What measures is the Parliament putting in place for future Administration that Taxpayers money is well spent.