DAREECE POLO
Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
Mounting legal bills and a spike in white-collar criminal litigation have prompted the Government to request an additional $89,492,221 for the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs.
Minister of Justice and Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General, Devesh Maharaj, said the funding is urgently needed to manage a significant increase in legal activity.
“The Honourable Attorney General has advised me that there are now increased demands on the criminal justice system on the issue of white-collar crimes. He told me he’s particularly swamped in this area at this point in time,” Maharaj said.
He recalled a Guardian Media report from May 7, in which Attorney General John Jeremie lamented the lack of available funding to pay legal fees when he assumed office.
“There was not enough money in the vote to even buy a doubles when he assumed office. The entire vote was cleared out. There was no money remaining to pay legal fees,” Maharaj said.
He said the volume of legal fees was already significant at the time the supplementary request was drafted, but that the amount has since “ballooned.”
“Each day we are receiving bills at the Ministry of the Attorney General from both foreign and local attorneys and consultants that, quite frankly, has us a bit concerned.”
While an additional $54 million of the requested amount is intended to cover legal fees, both outstanding and incoming, Maharaj said recent internal updates show liabilities may now be much higher.
“The close figure we have towards outstanding bills, foreign and local and consultants, has now increased to close to $100 if not $100 million.”
He added: “From a preliminary assessment of fees that have been paid over the 10 years, it has been perhaps one of the highest periods, highest amounts paid out to local and foreign attorneys and consultants. And as I just indicated, we were presented by the permanent secretaries this morning (yesterday) of a new figure, which was added on to what was presented to the Minister of Finance for this supplementation. So, we don’t know how much more is existing out in the woodworks and how much more is going to hit us.”
The Government could not definitively say what percentage of the $54 million would cover outstanding fees versus future obligations, or whether new legal briefs had been issued by the current administration.
In addition to legal fees, the request included $1.3 million for contract employment.
Minister of Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein said this will fund the salaries of employees within the Registrar General’s Department, particularly those hired to support Global Forum compliance efforts.
“This appropriation will meet our contractual obligations until September 2025 because the former minister of finance did not give enough allocations towards this line item with respect to contract employment,” Hosein explained, responding to a question from Arouca/Lopinot MP Marvin Gonzales on whether those contracts would expire soon.
Hosein stressed that T&T remains on the Global Forum blacklist and reaffirmed Government’s commitment to addressing the issue.
Maharaj also revealed that 323 individuals are currently employed on short-term contracts. He said this was unchanged since the April 28th General Election. Asked if anyone had been terminated within the last six weeks, he acknowledged: “There have been some that have been terminated, I understand.”
He said approximately 11 employees had been dismissed from the Law Reform Commission, Law Revision Commission, Attorney General’s Secretariat and the Minister’s Secretariat.
In response to Opposition scrutiny, Hosein pushed back, accusing the previous administration of handpicking attorneys and racking up the very legal fees they now question.
“It is hypocritical for the PNM to ask about legal fees,” Hosein said, referencing what he described as “eat-ah-food PNM attorneys” retained by the former government.
At that point, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly intervened and requested the chairman’s intervention to de-escalate the exchanges.
Meanwhile, Gonzales questioned whether Government’s increased allocation for legal fees would cover matters such as the Piarco International Airport corruption case and litigation involving attorneys in the Vincent Nelson v Attorney General matter. However, officials were unable to provide a definitive answer.
“If it falls within that category, of course he will pay it,” Gonzales said, referring to white-collar crime cases.
Maharaj further confirmed that $16.8 million was allocated for fees payable to external attorneys supporting the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) but could not say whether this amount included funding for the Estate Management and Business Development Company (EMBD) corruption case. Nor could he confirm whether the allocation would cover legal representation in cases involving Members of Parliament.