AG tells Parliament his ministry inherited $30.7M debt from PNM administration

Anand Ramlogan told Parliament on Wednesday his ministry paid lawyers $45.5 million between June 2010 and August 2010.

However he pointed out that the the bulk of that - $30.7 million - was inherited debt from the previous PNM administration, meaning the legal bill under his watch has been $14.7 million.

The Attorney General revealed the figures in response to a question from Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley on the expenses paid by the AG's ministry in the3-month period.

Ramlogan further pointed that a substantial sum was for an investigation of Rowley by the firm of Sanitas, that was hired by the Attorney General’s ministry, under the past PNM administration.

Sanitas was asked to investigate allegations against Rowley about an alleged offshore bank account.

He said Sanitas involved forensic accountants for the Rowley probe. “So all the monies we paid is because we had to pay to help them investigate one of their own,” Ramlogan added.

He said he found it strange the payment for Sanitas did not stop at the AG’s ministry. He said he discovered that at UDeCOTT, Sanitas also was employed and paid $3 million.

Ramlogan said the People's Partnership Government had to pay for other investigations the past PNM Government did on its own membership, such as the Landate and Justice Sealey Commission.

“It seems they were investigating Dr Rowley from various angles and utilising various resources,” he said.

Ramlogan noted that the fees paid by the ministry currently pertain to routine matters—advice, litigation, review of documents and in some cases “... pursuit of assiduous but diplomatic investigations—against former PNM ministers ...and some of whom made an early and premature departure from that Cabinet.”

He said the ministry still owed $11.8 million for the period.

Ramlogan further pointed out that from June 2010 to August 2011 he recused himself from any matters concerning his former law firm which came before the ministry. He said such matters were dealt with by the Solicitor General.

Ramlogan said when Patrick Manning called the general election in 2010 there was a “mad rush” in that division to incur new legal expenditure while persons who had done work for the PNM Government in the past were not paid.

He noted that up to last month the UK firm of Charles Russel and Company wrote to the current administration seeking payment on some matters from as far back as five years.