Special Prosecutors paid $20,000 per hour; plus $2M in retainer fees

Jun 26, 2018 News

Each of the five special prosecutors hired for fraud cases involving former Government officials, received a retainer of $2M, according to information disclosed by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams.
According to the salaries and benefits provided by Williams, the retainer fee was applied against the Attorney’s fees and cost incurred by the state or expenses paid by the attorney on behalf of the state.
This is in addition to $20,000 per hour that each special prosecutor received for legal services rendered in prosecuting matters in the court.

Former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams

The information presented by Williams was contained in a written response to questions from Opposition Member, Anil Nandlall, who served as the previous Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs.
Williams stated that the agreement signed by the special prosecutors is dated June 7, 2017. By the end of March, Williams noted that the prosecutors had worked on 12 cases.
According to information supplied to Kaieteur News, the five special prosecutors retained by the state are Trenton Lake, Michael Somersall, Hughley Griffith, Lawrence Harris and Patrice Henry.
Last year January when Government announced it was pursing fraud charges against officials in the former People’s Progressive Party administration, Compton Richardson, was announced as the sixth special prosecutor.
Nandlall had told reporters at the time that the appointment of the special prosecutors was unconstitutional.
He had pointed out that lawyers who will be or have been hired as Special Prosecutors, are operating out of Government Ministers’ “former” firms.
Police Legal Advisor, Justice Claudette Singh, SC, had been critical of the prosecutors’ work ethics. In the initial stages, she had stated that the prosecutors were not attending meetings, “non-co-operative and that they were not pulling their weight.”
She was of the view that the lack of cooperation was hindering the expeditious delivery of prosecution in many of the investigations undertaken by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).
She also said that had the Special Prosecutors been more involved in the building of the cases by SOCU, more would have been accomplished.
The special prosecutors were hired to ensure effective and efficient prosecution of criminal charges into the Sparendaam Housing Project, known as Pradoville Two, and the operations of the Guyana Cricket World Cup Inc.
Nandlall is of the view that this was yet another political witch-hunt that is contaminated with cronyism, nepotism and ‘money for the boys’.