Who is footing the bill for these ministers’ trip to the CCJ

Who is footing the bill for these ministers’ trip to the CCJ – Ram

May 10, 2019 News

Five Ministers of government have gone to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) but no one knows why they are there.

[from left] Vice-President, Sydney Allicock; Minister of Public Service, Tabitha Sarrabo-Halley; Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton; Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry; and Minister of Business Haimraj Rajkumar

Attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram, has criticised the government for sending them there for no apparent reason.
Those ministers are Vice-President Sydney Allicock; Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry; Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton; Minister of Public Service, Tabitha Sarrabo-Halley; and Minister of Business Haimraj Rajkumar. They are not part of the legal team, Ram said and so is Attorney-at-law Darren Wade.

“There is no apparent reason for any of the Ministers or Mr. Wade to be in Trinidad as a spectator of court proceedings that were live streamed and could have been accessible from any place in Guyana. One suggestion was a show of force to the Court or moral support for the Attorney General (AG), hardly a justification for their presence,” he stated.
What is troubling, Ram noted, is that it is likely that the trip was sponsored by taxpayer dollars. And even more troubling is the likelihood, he said, that the decision to send them was made by the President David Granger led Cabinet.
Ram said that it is safe to say that none of the ministers is in any way connected with the cases, nor is any one of them legally trained.
He also said, “It is hoped that the AG and the Minister of Finance will give taxpayers a full account of the expenditure borne by them for the prosecution of these cases. So far, the AG has retained at least five Senior Counsel from abroad who command very high fees.”
“Responsible government requires that taxpayers’ money is properly spent and fully accounted for.”

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