Al-Rawi defends AG against Kamla

RURAL Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi says Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is out of line to claim Attorney General Reginald Armour had a conflict of interest in a mediation company.

Al-Rawi also said as a former prime minister, Persad-Bissessar appears to have forgotten that legislation trumps Cabinet notes.

He was contributing to the debate on the Civil Division Bill 2024 in the House of Representatives on September 20.

Earlier in the debate, Persad-Bissessar said Armour had an interest in a mediation company before his appointment as AG in March 2022. She asked if he still had such an interest, since the bill dealt with mediation as a form of dispute resolution.

Al-Rawi, who is Armour's immediate predecessor, reminded MPs that the Constitution was TT's supreme law.

He then cited provisions in legislation passed in 2015, 2016 and 2018 which approved contract positions within the Judiciary for periods of five years, with possible extensions afterwards.

In her contribution, Persad-Bissessar said contract positions approved by Cabinet were for three years.

Al-Rawi said, "Legislation always trumps a Cabinet note."

He also recalled that the post of court administrator was created by a Cabinet note in 1998, in the then UNC government of which Persad-Bissessar was a member.

Persad-Bissessar served briefly as AG before being replaced by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.

Al-Rawi said Persad-Bissessar has publicly referred to herself in that role as a "ten-days AG."

He dismissed her claim that Armour had a conflict of interest in a mediation company and did not think Armour should respond to it.

Al-Rawi wondered if, by the same argument, Persad-Bissessar also had an equal obligation to disclose a potential conflict of interest with respect to the bill.

He asked if she would "stand up and say, 'I am a member of the inner bar. I could earn fees under this law. I declare a conflict of interest.'"

Al-Rawi said he was disappointed that as a former prime minister and AG, Persad-Bissessar would stand on such "a weak platform."

In his contribution, Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein defended Persad-Bissessar's call for Armour to declare whether he had an interest in a mediation company.

He also questioned whether the civil court proposed by the bill should hear election-petition matters.

Hosein maintained that these should be heard in the civil division of the High Court.

He said some judges have expressed concern that: "We must have courts sitting in public, so the ordinary man or woman in the street can walk into a courtroom and listen to any matter, once it is an open court matter."