Chester Sam­bra­no

Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, SC, is re­mov­ing the blame from the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion (DPP) in the mat­ter in­volv­ing the new of­fice on Park Street in Port of Spain.

Dur­ing the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment meet­ing af­ter the 2024 Bud­get, it was dis­closed by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour, SC, that $55 mil­lion was paid in rental fees for the build­ing since 2019, but the DPP nor his staff ever moved in.

Fol­low­ing the rev­e­la­tion, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley al­so crit­i­cised the DPP for not oc­cu­py­ing the build­ing.

How­ev­er, in a state­ment on the mat­ter Se­nior Coun­sel Ma­haraj said, "The DPP did not have any in­put in the de­ci­sion made by the gov­ern­ment to en­ter in­to the rental agree­ment of the build­ing which the gov­ern­ment en­tered in­to in 2019."

He al­so said, "The DPP al­so did not have any in­put in the de­ci­sion of the gov­ern­ment to pay any rentals for that build­ing af­ter the ten­an­cy ex­pired."

Ma­haraj added, "The DPP al­so did not have any in­put in the de­ci­sion made af­ter the lease rental had ex­pired to con­sid­er re­new­ing the lease rental."

He said, "The rea­son the DPP did not oc­cu­py the build­ing was be­cause of the con­tents of the sev­er­al Spe­cial Branch Re­ports and the non-im­ple­men­ta­tion ful­ly of the rec­om­men­da­tions con­tained in those Re­ports be­cause if the DPP and his staff oc­cu­pied the build­ing in those cir­cum­stances it would have put their lives at huge risk."