Attorney General Garvin Nicholas has admitted that a report into the cost of legal fees incurred by the Office of the Attorney General laid in Parliament last month was filled with “administrative errors.” In a telephone interview on the issue, Nicholas said he had received the report and read it but had not had time to construct a response for the media. While he did not provide detailed information, Nicholas said the report confirmed that entries of lawyer fees presented in the statement had been duplicated and some figures were incorrect.
Nicholas requested the report from his permanent secretary after several inconsistencies were pointed out by attorneys named in the document and former attorney generals John Jeremie and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj called for a probe. Following the publishing of payments to attorneys, several lawyers indicated their intent to initiate legal action against the AG’s office.
Nicholas said while he had been informally apprised of the concerns by some attorneys, he was not aware that any legal action had been taken against his office in relation to the matter. He said he ordered the report following calls from lawyers. “At a cursory glance it would seem that figures were duplicated. “From the report I can say it was an administrative error. Two documents were used when gathering the information and the error happened because of this,” he said.
Nicholas did not give any further information from the report, indicating he needed time to prepare a report. He did say that despite the duplication of entries, there was no duplication of payments. “Even though there have been administrative errors in the document, the lawyers weren’t paid for those errors. That money did not leave the ministry,” he said.
Nicholas said the $343 million quoted in the document was therefore incorrect and would now have to be corrected in the Parliament, adding his ministry would work on ensuring that was done. One source told the T&T Guardian that some of the fees in the report were not in line with the Civil Proceedings Rule which guided lawyers on how much they should charge for their services. “While some fees are clearly duplicated, there are names of lawyers missing from that document. All of it has to be corrected,” the source added.
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A report published by the T&T Guardian last week, indicating payments on the inquiry into the death of baby Simeon Cottle, was therefore inaccurate as a result of the error in the AG’s report. Justice Mustafa Ibrahim received $500,000 for his role, Petronella Manning-Alleyne received $190,000 for her role, while British gynecologist Dr Melanie Davies received $114,490 and attorney Debra Coryat received $30,809.52 for administrative services.
Additional funds were spent on accommodation at the Hyatt Regency and Hilton hotels. The total spent on the inquiry was $864,245.72. This was confirmed in the minutes of the first meeting of the Parliament’s Finance Committee on June 23, 2014.