Former Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall on Thursday criticised the allocation in the 2018 budget for the Ministry of Legal Affairs for the payment of special prosecutors and expressed belief that these monies are part of a discretionary fund that could be used for various purposes.
Nandlall maintained that the AG Chambers has no role in the prosecution of criminal matters and more so that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), which is the proper authority to do so was allocated $274M for 2018.
During an interview last month, Nandlall, a PPP/C MP argued that the retention of six attorneys by the government to prosecute a number of high profile cases is unconstitutional. In the 2017 budget $100 million was included in the AG Chambers/ Ministry of Legal Affairs’ budget for the hiring of these persons.