An unseemly and potentially destructive contention among state officials over issues affecting operations within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is now threatening to further erode the criminal justice system.
Why? As articulated by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who also holds the critical post of Judicial and Legal Service Commission, there have been unattended matters affecting the proper functioning of the DPP’s Office for some time.
In defence of recent allegations made against him by the Prime Minister, DPP Roger Gaspard has complained that staff limitations and the inadequacy of new office space offered by the Government have stymied the effective functioning of his office.
These matters have come to the fore in the wake of the DPP discontinuing corruption cases against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and former United National Congress Gerald Ramdeen.
Prime Minister Rowley invested quite an amount of political capital in the case against Mr Ramlogan and Mr Ramdeen. The discontinuance of the charges against both men has thus denied the People’s National Movement explosive ammunition against the opposition, that is if the two were found guilty.
In another instance, the DPP gave up on the 20-year-old charge against former prime minister Basdeo Panday, his wife, a former minister and a businessman. It was yet another loaded matter which, if decided against Mr Panday and the others, would have dealt a serious blow to UNC’s chances for the local and general elections to come.
Clearly annoyed by the loss of propaganda possibilities, PM Rowley released volleys of condemnation against the DPP; and Attorney General Reginald Amour dutifully followed through with accusations of underperformance of the DPP’s Office which attorneys in the office have railed against.
Antagonised that allegations from the DPP were aimed at his own functioning as the head of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, CJ Archie also felt it necessary to defend his office. He noted that the DPP had not fulfilled his role in making recommendations for additional staff to the Director of Personnel Administration, which would then have allowed him the opportunity to act.
Unfortunately, it’s the public interests which have been trampled underground while the elephants have fought. Those interests cover the failure of the criminal justice system to deliver in two critical cases dealing with corruption where millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been expended futilely.
A damming example of how justice is to be pursued is highlighted by the fact that a United States citizen charged in the same Piarco Airport scandal has not only been found guilty in that country’s judicial system, but has long served his jail sentence for his crimes.
At the moment, however, the most senior officials of Government, the head of the Judiciary and the JLSC, and the DPP, who has the responsibility to prosecute criminal matters on behalf of the people and state, are engaged in a circus of blame-game allocation in the public arena while not seemingly seeking to get together to resolve the ultimate problem.
In the interim, the failure to prosecute to finality two major corruption cases in the history of this country is an indictment on the State with the prospect of more such failures to come.