AG takes on Hinds, Al-Rawi in Senate

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Attorney General was in top form in the Senate Tuesday as he defended his office and the government against a barrage of questions from the opposition. Here is a sample of the exchange in the upper house:

Fitzgerald HINDS: “Is the Attorney General telling this country that he realistically expects to recover from Malcolm Jones $1.2 billion in circumstances where Jones acted as chairman of Petrotrin?”

Anand RAMLOGAN: “I don’t know what the financial assets of Mr Malcolm Jones would be like. But what I can say is the claim is based on the loss sustained and suffered by the people of this country, which is over $1.2 billion. Today, we are trying to sell the Petrotrin GTL plant as scrap- iron and we are unable to do that. I am clear in my mind that there were criminal efforts made by the former administration to filter a lot of money away and those matters are being investigated by the police. The chickens will come home to roost. My learned friend knows very well that they can run but they can never hide!”

Fitzgerald HINDS: “Nobody ain’t running nowhere. After $45 million worth of expenditure in legal fees and briefs, would not the Attorney General consider that he has squandered the money of the people of Trinidad and Tobago?”

Anand RAMLOGAN: “That arithmetic is wrong...There has been a history in this country of money being spent in an effort to uncover and pursue wrongdoing. My learned friend well knows as he was part of an administration that spent over $100 million to hound a Chief Justice out of office where a tribunal, under Lord Mustill, found no wrongdoing; to pursue the Piarco corruption cases; and also spent $60 million in the Uff Commission of Inquiry because of all of Calder Hart’s transgressions – and he did nothing about it! So don’t come here to play Pontius Pilate!”

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