Last Thursday, the Stabroek News carried an article under the caption “Trinidad AG to Auditor General: I won’t be intimidated by threats”, caught our attention. The statement from the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago was in response to a pre-action letter from Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass through her attorney. In the letter, the Auditor General stated that if the Attorney General did not respond to her, she would seek a judicial review of his ‘inaction and failure to render a decision to seek declaratory relief with respect to the unfair treatment of [her], breach of her constitutional rights to equality of treatment and protection of the law, a declaration that the independence of her office has been compromised and breached, a declaration that she has been treated unfairly and an order directing the State to pay her reasonable legal costs incurred in connection with this matter’.
The issue at hand is the controversy over the refusal of the Minister of Finance to table the Auditor General’s report on the public accounts for the fiscal year ended 30 September 2023.