Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge had no legal right to request that the United States Government investigate chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) Noel Garcia.
This was the opinion of former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and former head of the Central Authority David West.
Last Friday, Sturge, in a letter to the US Embassy and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, requested that country investigate whether the American financial system was used by Garcia in alleged “acts of fraud and the illegal payments of bribes and kickbacks.”
The allegations were detailed by Sturge last Monday in a letter to the Integrity Commission requesting an investigation into whether Garcia received kickbacks in the form of payment for his son’s education
Garcia denied and condemned the allegations when asked to comment.
Sturge noted that the US involvement was possible through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the US and T&T and suggested that the alleged offence may have been an extraditable offence.
The Mutual Assistance Act 1997 of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago says requests must be initiated by a judge, magistrate, the Director of Public Prosecutions or a law enforcement agency.
In a telephone interview yesterday, West said requests for assistance from the United States needed to be sent through the Central Authority to the US Department of Justice.
“What has to happen first is that there should be a police investigation into the matter. Once the police require evidence abroad, they make the request to the Central Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.
“The Central Authority looks at the request and makes sure it meets the requirement of the treaty, then they will send the request to the Department of Justice, which is their Central Authority,” West said.
Asked whether private citizens or groups were allowed to submit requests under the treaty, West said it had never happened under his tenure.
“It has never happened on my tenure and should not happen. It (the treaty) is not set up for people who have grievances to make a request. They have to go through an investigative body,” he added.
Maharaj, in an interview yesterday, said requests were normally made from government to government.
“The legislation piloted under my tenure was to promote assistance between governments in the fight against crime. Normally countries do not take requests from private individuals or groups. I do not know any further basis on which the opposition can make that request,” he added.
He said the Opposition, if it believed the Government was not conducting a proper investigation could finance a forensic investigation.
“As to requesting the US Government to investigate criminal complaint, I do not think the US will entertain that,” he said. He added, however, that the US had the power to investigate any criminal offence and one of those matters was if they dealt with US dollars.
“They will have a filtering exercise so it (monetary value) has to cross a certain threshold,” he said.
Asked to comment yesterday, Sturge said he was aware that extradition requests must go through the Central Authority.
He said however that his intent was to provide information of interest to the US Government.
“There is a difference between a request and providing information,” Sturge said. Sturge’s letter requests an investigation.
“If we wait on our Central Authority I don’t imagine they would want to initiate such an investigation,” he added. He said he expected the police to begin an investigation soon.