Finance Minister will be jailed for 21 days if US$2M judgment is not paid to Dipcon -High Court Judge

Jun 26, 2019 News

Finance Minister Winston Jordan will be jailed for not one, but 21 days if a $US2.2M judgement is not paid to Dipcon Engineering Services Limited by Saturday, July 8.

High Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry

On Monday, High Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry ruled that Minister Jordan will be imprisoned if he fails to comply with the court’s order to pay out the outstanding monies by the specified date.
Justice Sewnarine-Beharry, in her ruling, pointed out that Minister Jordan had failed to comply with a judgment handed down some time back by Justice Rishi Persaud who ordered that the monies are to be paid to the company. Added to that, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry pointed out that the Minister had also failed to comply with a writ of Mandamus issued by the Chief Justice for the monies to be paid.
Furthermore, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry also awarded cost to the engineering company in the sum of $3M, which she ordered be paid by the Minister.
According to the High Court Judge, there was no stay of proceedings granted on the two court orders, and the Minister, through his lawyers, has told the court that the National Assembly had approved monies to honour the judgment. Back in 2015, Justice Persaud, who was then sitting at the High Court, granted judgment in favour of Dipcon.
The matter had stemmed from a multi-million-dollar contract dispute between the Trinidad-based company and the State.
Justice Persaud had ruled that Dipcon recover from government US$665,032.17 as money due to the engineering company for infrastructural works done under the previous PPP government, along with the sum of US$1,563,368.50 for increased costs incurred by DIPCON at the request of the government in the course of undertaking the aforementioned work.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan

Obviously dissatisfied with the judgment, the Attorney General Basil Williams filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal. Based on reports, that appeal was out of time by about six months. The Court of Appeal refused to allow the appeal and dismissed it. Williams subsequently sought redress at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
In substantiating his case at the CCJ, Williams contended that there were good reasons for the belated appeal. For one, the Attorney General told the CCJ that the matter was handled by a private attorney and the State was not informed of the judgment until months after it was delivered. Noting the fact that the appeal was not filed within the prescribed time limit, the CCJ dismissed the appeal, among other things, noting that it was unacceptable.