Government to buy FCB building for DPP's office

Attorney General Reginald Armour says the state will buy the vacant First Citizens Bank (FCB) building on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain, to serve as the new headquarters of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

He revealed this as Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee approved his ministry’s budget allocation of $418,131,000.

Referring to a $5.1 million line item for the fiscal year 2025 allocated to rent, lease, office, accommodation and storage, San Juan/Barataria MP Saddam Hosein noted a newspaper article on the issue suggested the government was about to rent the FCB building for the Office of the DPP.

Armour said the building will be bought, not rented.

“The Minister of Finance is about to sign off on a purchase of the FCB building, and that purchase is for the accommodation of the DPP. A valuation report has been obtained and the building is therefore going to be purchased by the state and made available to the DPP.”

He said DPP Roger Gaspard had already viewed the building and found it suitable for his department’s needs.

“On four occasions (the DPP’s) staff, including the DPP himself on one occasion, visited the property and are satisfied with the property. Therefore, what is in train at the moment is an intended purchase by the government, through the Ministry of Finance.”

The building’s main entrance is on St Vincent Street, but it stretches the width of an entire block, with another entrance on Abercromby Street.

He suggested the move would not be immediate, as rental monies have already been set aside for the next fiscal year for the DPP’s current offices, including its Port of Spain office in the Winsure Building on Richmond Street.

“(The DPP) services all of Trinidad and Tobago. There are premises in South Trinidad and there are also premises that are utilised in Tobago and there are also premises currently occupied by the DPP at Winsure Building, and therefore there has to be an allocation for rent with respect to the other sub-offices of the DPP.”

Armour said more than $3 million had been allocated to outfitting the building and making it ready for use.

“The figure of $3.130 million has to do with funds which have been allocated for the accommodation for the DPP in Port of Spain. That is going to go to outfitting of the building, because after purchase that building will have to be outfitted for the accommodation.”

The DPP’s last proposed move, to a building formerly occupied by a bank, was squashed after Gaspard said it was a risk to staff.

He and his staff were supposed to move into a building at 13-17 Park Street which the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) previously occupied.

However, Gaspard refused to move, citing security concerns.

In response, the Prime Minister complained that Gaspard, a public servant, could scupper the move and cause the government to incur millions of dollars in rent and penalties as a result.

“We had to outfit it to suit the department that was going to go in there. We did all that, then we heard that there were security issues. We spent money strengthening the facility, bulletproof here, this and that there.

Rowley said, “At the end of the day, after we spent $55 million, a public servant could decide, ‘Ah not going in there.’ Something has to be wrong with that!”

Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj came to Gaspard's defence, citing a report that the site exposed DPP staff to a "huge risk" from gangsters armed with high-powered assault rifles.

Maharaj quoted correspondence from the TTPS Special Branch to Gaspard which said its Physical Securities Unit believed the building’s glass walls presented a "risk of injury or death to the DPP and his staff, particularly in the upper three floors."

Maharaj said, "It was the opinion of that unit that the building was vulnerable to high-velocity projectiles discharged by someone firing a rifle, and that there was a great line of sight from the hills to the building, in particular the upper three floors.”

Calls to Gaspard's phone for comment went unanswered.