Sacked justice minister and former St Joseph MP Herbert Volney yesterday contradicted statements made by Independent Liberal Party leader Jack Warner about the birth of the Section 34.
Warner in a sworn statement alleged a criminal conspiracy to implement the law for the benefit of two United National Congress financiers—Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson—who were charged with a series of fraud offences related to the Piarco Airport Development Project.
“Section 34 was conceived by me, with no urging from the political directorate of the country. It was hammered out in the Senate by Opposition, Government and Independent benches and it was a Parliamentary oversight not to include white collar crime in the schedule of exempted crimes,” Volney, a former High Court judge, said in response to queries from CNC 3.
He said it was intended to force the hand of the Director of Public Prosecution to prosecute long outstanding matters where oppression, by delay, was becoming an issue.
“It was juridically conceived by me given my background on the bench. If there was anything wrong with it in principle, I was to accept responsibility for it.
“There were differences in the Cabinet over how to deal with Section 34 after Steve and Ish availed themselves of the facility. The AG and I drew swords, the PM supported him and repealed the section and I took the fall over it.”