Rowley casuses AG of launching $108M witchunt; AG dnies claim

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley claimed on Monday that Attorney General Anand Ramlogan is spending $108 million dollars to hire a special investigator and prosecutor to engage in “fishing expedition”.

He added that this would undermine the work of the country's Integrity Commission and noted that the only $2.5 million has been allocated in the 2012 budget for the commission to conduct its investigations.

Rowley also said that Ramlogan has been engaging in a "dangerous" style of launching civil prosecutions against persons after the Director Public Prosecutions (DPP) failed bring criminal charges against the same public officials.

“What we have an issue with is with the Attorney General arrogating unto himself the role the Constitution has provided for the Integrity Commission,” Rowley said.

He charged that the People's Partnership government will spend more than $200 million by the end of 2012 to engage in witch hunts. “What the Government is hellbent on doing is creating political ‘ra-ra’, slandering people and using the state to bolster its political posture,” Rowley insisted.

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan told the Guardian newspaper he is not aware of any complaint by the Integrity Commission about a lack of financial allocations from the Government for its investigations. 

He said the Government has always provided “what was requested in the hope the numerous complaints about senior PNM officials will be expeditiously investigated.” 

Ramlogan added that the Commission’s investigative jurisdiction "is limited to breaches of the Integrity in Public Life Act and referring matters to the DPP.”

He said: “Neither the DPP nor the Integrity Commission has any power to initiate legal action in the public interest in the civil jurisdiction. “That responsibility is vested by the Constitution in the AG. Dr Rowley is playing smart with foolishness.”