Buy your own ticket

AZARD ALI

TENSION is looming among certain High Court judges who have found themselves embarrassed by the judiciary’s administration who cannot buy airline tickets for them to travel to Tobago to adjudicate on cases.

Two judges have been forced to foot the bill from their own pockets which includes buying tickets for their respective staff as well, when they travel to the sister isle next week Thursday to preside in the Tobago Hall of Justice.

Described as an embarrassment to the integrity of judges and a slap in the face for the people of Tobago, Newsday was reliably informed that very terse exchanges of emails on the issue have taken place, with one judge writing to colleagues as to just why $78 million in taxpayers money had been utilised on foreign judicial travel for the past ten years, but justice for the people of Tobago have to be put on hold because the judiciary cannot buy an airline ticket of $300.

Newsday obtained a letter written to the judges by Court Executive Administrator Christie-Ann Morris-Alleyne, who apologised to the judges and explained that the judiciary is awaiting grant of credit from the treasury. In her letter dated last week Wednesday, Morris-Alleyne requested that in the future, judges requesting domestic travel arrangements to Tobago when they are assigned to preside there, do so one month in advance. And, that if they are sitting for less than a week, the should travel with one Judicial Support Officer (JSO).

But to compound the situation, Newsday learned, was the suggestion by the court executive adminstrator in her letter, that video conferencing and “other methods” of holding certain types of hearings, “will do more to free judicial officers from the bothersome task of undertaking travel to Tobago to sit for short periods”.

The suggestion sent shock waves among judges, Newsday learned from sources close to judges, who commented that already there is video conferencing, but whatever means a judge of the High Court employs in conducting a trial, is solely within the judge’s remit.

The Tobago travel issue flared up on Friday October 6, when attorney Vashiest Maharaj was informed by the JSC to Justice Carol Gobin via email, that a case scheduled for hearing on the Tuesday (four days later) could not go on. Maharaj told Newsay yesterday that when he enquired the reason, owing to the fact that his client lives in Canada and had already gotten time-off from work and purchased tickets to fly to the sister isle, he was told that the judge only learned hours before that tickets were not purchased by the judiciary for her travel and that of her JSO.

Newsday learned that Gobin made a frantic attempt to secure tickets to Tobago for herself and her JSO, but was unable to secure any seats. It was only then she was forced to have the respective attorneys in the case informed about her inability to travel to Tobago. Another judge who was also informed at last minute that tickets could not be secured for his travel to Tobago was Justice Devindra Rampersad. The judge also, was forced to adjourn all his cases, due to his inability to secure tickets on time.

Two other judges who have been assigned to Tobago from next week Thursday, are Justice Frank Seepersad and Justice Ricky Rahim. Sources in the judiciary told Newsday yesterday that they also were informed as well that the Finance and Accounts department in the judiciary is not issuing any purchase orders from Caribbean Airlines for airline tickets to Tobago due to non-release of funds from the treasury. Newsday was told that when Morris-Alleyne’s October 11 release went out to the judges, Seepersad and Rahim, who have pending cases in Tobago, decided to make their own purchases, or, they too would have been forced to adjourned their cases as well.

Attorney Maharaj, commenting on the forced adjournment of his case, told Newsday, “This is a terrible intereference in the constitutional right of the citizens of our twin-Island states. We received an email on the Friday that the scheduled hearing on Tuesday last week, was cancelled due to the judiciary’s inability to purchase tickets for the judge’s travel to Tobago, and, that frantic efforts by the judge to make her own arrangements, proved futile. Judges are insulated from the scare of the executive and they ought not to be treated in that manner. My client who is a Tobagonian, but works in Canada, already purchased his ticket and got time-off from work. Upon getting the notification, I called him immediately. Tobagonians do not deserve this sort of treatment. They are entitled to justice in the same manner justice is dispense in Trinidad.”

Morris-Alleyne explained to the judges in her two-page letter, that at the end of the financial year, all accounts are closed and therefore no invoice orders are issued to the judiciary.

She stated, “While the release of funds allows us to issue invoice orders we must await the grant of credit from the treasury before cheques may be prepared and issued. The grant of credit usually takes about a week after releases are granted.

I have considered clarifying this issue because, (1) In order to purchase ailine tickets to Tobago, an invoice order addressed to the airline must be issued by the accounting unit for the flight. (1) The financial year ends on September 30 as this year, September 29, was a Friday, the year in effect ended on September 29. (3) Issuing of an invoice order to Caribbean Airlines near close of business on the 29 of September, would have been impossible.”

Earlier this year, the judiciary was also strapped for funding when in May, it borrowed $700,000 from the Mediation Board, claiming that limited funding was allocated to the judiciary in the 2016-2017 budget. One judge had commented then, “Millions have been spent on overseas travel and now we have reached the state where the judiciary is basically going a begging.”