(Trinidad Guardian) Lawyers within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions are calling on Attorney General Reginald Armour to apologise for his suggestion that their office was underperforming.
The call was made in a letter delivered to the AG’s Office yesterday, even as Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard was meeting with Armour to discuss issues of staff shortages and the relocation of the DPP’s Office, a topic which has caused a public spat between the DPP, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Armour in recent days.
The three-hour long meeting took place at the AG’s Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain office and began at 9 am. Afterwards, Gaspard was seen leaving the AG’s Office in a heavily tinted SUV just before noon. However, minutes later, when he arrived at his Richmond Street office, Gaspard did not speak to journalists who were waiting at the building’s front gate.
However, in their two-page letter to AG Armour, some 16 attorneys made it clear they were disturbed over Armour’s comments, pointing out the toll on their well-being and family life that their efforts take due to the staffing issue at the DPP’s Office.
In the letter, the attorneys said: “We, the state attorneys of the DPP, formally express our disappointment with these comments. They do not accurately reflect the efforts and commitment of the staff at this office. These statements present a distorted view of the existing reality and are likely to undermine public confidence in this office.”
The attorneys countered that they had been performing even with an increased workload and remained committed to their jobs, although they had to sacrifice personal and family time to achieve this. They added that under the pressure of an increasing workload, several of them had been affected mentally and physically, with some of their colleagues even falling ill.
“We call upon you to issue a public apology to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and retraction of these unfounded claims,” the attorneys suggested to AG Armour.
The DPP’s meeting with Armour yesterday came in the wake of an initial attack by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley during a political meeting in Barataria.
Rowley had noted that while the DPP was complaining about staff shortages, he had failed to occupy a building in east Port-of-Spain which had been sourced for the office at an overall cost of over $40 million.
Armour also joined the debate when he noted that Gaspard’s claim that his office was understaffed and had attorneys with limited court experience was “an unsatisfactory explanation for under-performance of the DPP.”
On the issue of moving from their current location at the Winsure Building on Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain, the attorneys said remained unwilling to do so due to safety concerns.
“We have been informed by the DPP that the Special Branch advised against occupation of that building without implementation of the suggested recommendations. Given the fact that the Special Branch Unit is specialised in the assessment of a range of security threats for executives, including the President, and our own knowledge of the location of that building, we, the attorneys, are unwilling to occupy the Park Court Building, where we are likely to be the subjects of criminal attacks. This is especially so, as many of us have already suffered the trauma of perilous encounters with accused persons, their associates and families.”
They added that the insistence on them moving to the new building “serves as a further blow to our physical and mental well-being.
