De Lima: Jairam did right thing

Congress of the People (COP) member Vernon de Lima says he believes that Law Association [resident Seenath Jairam, SC, did the right thing by returning the brief issued to him by the Ministry of Finance. In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, de Lima said: "I think he did the right thing by returning the brief and unfortunately he did the wrong thing by accepting the brief."

The former COP executive member said he would rather not comment on the current COP chairman Joseph Toney who also returned the brief. On Thursday,  Jairam and Toney, told the Ministry of Finance they were no longer interested in representing the ministry at the commission of enquiry into the collapsed of the insurance giant Clico and the Hindu Credit Union (HCU).

Initially, the services of Fyard Hosein, SC, and attorney Michael Quamina were retained. However, both attorneys were fired via e-mail last week, with the ministry announcing that Jairam, Toney and attorney Jagdeo Singh were retained as replacements.

Jairam and Toney in separate press releases said due to public perception they were returning the briefs. There was the perception that Jairam's involvement in the case was a conflict of interest since he had represented a group of Clico policyholders led by Percy Farrell against the office of the Attorney General.

Head of the Clico policyholders Peter Permell in a subsequent interview said policyholders were pleased  Jairam and Toney returned the briefs. However, he added, the lingering question still remained as to why the briefs were taken from Hosein and Quamina.

Permell said the initial attorneys have been involved in the case since its inception 18 months ago and the switch would cost taxpayers. He added: "While we commend the attorneys for returning the briefs and doing the right thing, the elephant in the room is why did the minister take a decision to change the attorneys involved in the commission of enquiry for the past 18 months."