In the face of an impending criminal complaint to be filed by fired national security minister Gary Griffith, government’s chief public relations consultant Ernie Ross has changed his tune and is now confirming he did meet with Griffith and his wife at his St Clair office last Thursday.
That meeting, which took place hours after Police Complaints Authority (PCA) director David West filed a criminal complaint against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, was first made public by Griffith and had been stoutly denied by Ross and Communication Minister Vasant Bharath.
Griffith, who has been identified as a critical witness in support of West’s complaint, had threatened to tell all about the details of what took place at that meeting. The former minister said then his wife, Nicole Dyer-Griffith, chair of the Congress of the People, and Bharath were present at that meeting. Ross denied Bharath was part of the meeting and the minister also said he was not present.
Details of those discussions have now formed part of Griffith’s report to the police. The police will now have to determine whether Ross’ intervention amounted to an attempt to pervert the course of justice by reportedly advising Griffith to withdraw his witness statement in support of West.
On Sunday, just hours before Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar made her fourth Cabinet reshuffle in as many years, Bharath sent out a statement condemning Griffith for accusing Cabinet members of attempting to influence him to back off from supporting West. Griffith shot back, saying he had never made such a claim and Bharath never consulted him before sending out the statement.
In an interview on Tuesday, Ross, when questioned aboaut the meeting denied it ever took place and said the matter was now in the hands of his lawyers. But yesterday, Ross in a telephone interview admitted he met with Griffith and Dyer-Griffith on Thursday, just as Griffith had originally stated. He said he sat in that meeting in an “informal” role but denied Bharath was a part of it. Ross has a full-page advertisement in today’s newspaper in a bid to “set the record straight.”
In that release, Ross said he “convened the meeting as a media adviser” to the former minister of national security.” The ad stated: “As is proper, the former minister Mr Griffith and his wife, Ms Nicole Dyer-Griffith, were both advised at the onset of the meeting and during the session that the discussions were entirely in their interest and there was no attempt to change the veracity of statements.
“At all times the purpose of the meeting was to prepare the minister for scrutiny of the media, public and Opposition party.” Ross said the role he played was similar to what he had done on previous occasions with many other Cabinet ministers, advising them as issues arose. The matter of Ross’ alleged involvement in possible criminal conduct, was raised yesterday by journalists in Guyana with the Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.
Rodrigues-Birkett told Guyana media Ross would have to explain the background to the situation to her, according to two Guyanese reporters. Ross, a Guyanese national, is the honorary consul general to T&T. Ross yesterday produced a press statement from Rodrigues-Birkett's ministry saying he had provided the requested information and that her ministry “reposes its confidence” in his explanation.
“As Honorary Consul General, Ross is permitted to function in other capacities,” the release said.