Minister in the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Renuka Sangramsingh-Sooklal said that in the spike of the pandemic, the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs (AGLA) faces constant litigation over the Public Health Ordinance. Contributing to the debate on the Appropriation (Financial Year-2022) Bill, 2021 in the Senate yesterday, Sagramsingh-Sooklal said it comes from people who tried to return to Trinidad and Tobago during the closure of borders and from bar owners who wanted to reopen.
The 2022 budgetary allocation to the AGLA is $337,739,760. Sagramsingh-Sooklal said in looking at recurrent expenditure, the salaries of legal and non-legal, contract and permanent staff, is costly as the AGLA spent a lot of money defending frivolous court actions brought on by "insignificant, irrelevant and self-appointed political activists". She said the AGLA had this high recurrent expenditure for the past five years because of the United National Congress (UNC).
“Now Trinidad & Tobago, if I am to explain to you where your money has been going in this ministry, we can easily look at the Office of the Solicitor General. We can easily look at the amount of matters we had to defend in the Public Health Ordinance and quarantine provisions.”
Some matters in the AGLA hands were Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne vs Dr Michelle Trotman, the Thoracic Medical Director of the Caura Hospital; businesswoman Shirlanne Sasha Singh vs The Minister of the National Security. She said Dominic Suraj and others vs The Attorney General, which has gone to the Privy Council, increase litigation cost.
She said it was important for citizens to understand that when the AGLA speaks about spending money on matters, it was not that it was losing. Once someone files a matter, the AGLA has no option but to defend. While the Opposition criticised the AGLA's handling of cases, Sagramsingh-Sooklal said people would think that those lawyers understood how litigation worked. She said the AGLA has a responsibility to protect the public purse.
“Sometimes a matter comes before you, and it is not that you lose the matter, but it is because when you weigh pros and cons when you look at the kind of money that you have to invest, it would make more sense to the people’s money to settle their matter and try to negotiate towards settling.
She acknowledged a release from the Law Association, which reminded politicians of the rule of sub judice following several references to court matters by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley recently. Sagramsingh-Sooklal said she would not delve into anything that would compromise the integrity of those matters. However, she would let citizens know where their money goes.