Attorney General Anand Ramlogan told Parliament Friday his ministry paid out $45.5 million to lawyers between June 2010 and August 2011. However he said $30.7 million of that was inherited from the former Manning PNM administration.
Ramlogan was responding to a question from Opposition Leader Keith Rowley who wanted to know the AG's total expenditure for lawyers.
The AG said his ministry's expenditure during that time was only $14.7 million. He noted the bulk of the money paid was for PNM debt incurred for investigations.
One of them was by a firm called Sanitas, which the Manning regime hired to probe Rowley's alleged offshore bank accounts.
Ramlogan said when Manning called the May 2010 general election there was a “mad rush” to incur new legal expenditure even though they did not pay their debts.
He said up to last month the UK firm of Charles Russel and Company wrote the current administration seeking payment dating back five years.
Ramlogan said the current Government also had to pay for investigations the past PNM Government did on its own membership, such as the Landate and Justice Sealey Commission.
Ramlogan said the current Government also had to pay for investigations the past PNM Government did on its own membership, such as the Landate and Justice Sealey Commission.
“So all the monies we paid is because we had to pay to help them investigate one of their own,” Ramlogan added. “It seems they were investigating Dr Rowley from various angles and utilising various resources,” he said.
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