DPP tells JSC: I will consider moving to new building after Special Branch 7th report

DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard says a seventh report from the Special Branch will be submitted before he considers relocating his staff to a Park Street building leased for his office.

Speaking at a joint select committee (JSC) of Parliament on Wednesday, Gaspard said there will be another meeting with Attorney General Reginald Armour (SC) and himself along with others on the issue.

On April 14, Gaspard, his deputy Joan Honore-Paul, Armour, officers of the Special Branch and technocrats from the AG’s office visited the Park Street building and had a tour and two-hour long meeting. Newsday reported that day that the group arrived at the building at 10.25 am, in two heavily tinted black Toyota Prados, leaving at 11.58 am.

The issue of the building being leased for three years without anyone taking up occupancy was first raised by the Prime Minister at a PNM public meeting in Barataria on March 9.

Dr Rowley said then, that the DPP failed to to occupy the building which cost the state $24 million to lease, in addition to the $20 million spent in security upgrades.

At the JSC, Gaspard said he first toured the building in 2016 and had concerns but, not being a security expert, asked the Special Branch to vet the building.

He added that between 2020 and this year, there were six reports by the elite police unit which is responsible for the protection of the country’s most senior public officials including the President and Prime Minister.

He said, although he had reservations based on its location, he still decided to occupy the building.

After the April 14 visit, the Special Branch is expected to, within a month, report its findings and then the DPP will make a decision on whether or not he will move his staff into the building.

On March 15, attorneys from the DPP’s office delivered a two-page letter to the AG calling on him to rescind a directive that they move into the building immediately.

They said asking them to move amidst the six reports on its security flaws served “as a further blow to our physical and mental well-being.”

The letter added that the attorneys were unwilling to occupy the building as they were likely to be the subject to criminal attacks.

Gaspard said he was speaking in “Delphic tones” because, unlike others, he did not want to put into the public domain the vulnerabilities of the building.

“Suffice it to say, for your purposes and the purposes of the committee today, my reluctance to take my staff into that building was predicated upon what the experts said about the building.”

He added: “Recommendations that show up the vulnerabilities of that building didn't first come from Special Branch. It came from the Ministry of National Security and the technocrats of the Ministry of the Attorney General, not Roger Gaspard the DPP.

"I always said I do not have the expertise, that’s not my forte, to evaluate security concerns, not even perhaps at my home.”

In 2020, the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO) held a ceremonial handover of the building, which has since been retrofitted to accommodate the DPP’s executive secretariat, administrative and support units, processing units and units for indictment and vault usage.

At a media briefing on March 23, Rowley said, after each security concern was raised by the Special Branch, the State responded and addressed the concern. Rowley added that the Special Branch did not create law but gave recommendations which Government might or might not act on.

He said the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was the suggestion to erect a concrete wall on the outside of the building's own glass walls. That suggestion was rejected by the landlord near the end of the lease. Rowley said, since then, the building had been leased on a month-to-month basis at $600,000 per month.