The Law Association is set to discuss the recent announcement by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi that state company Petrotrin had discontinued legal action, which was started under the former People’s Partnership administration, against its former executive chairman Malcolm Jones in the controversial World Gas to Liquids Ltd (WGTL) project.
In an interview yesterday, Law Association president Reginald Armour said the matter would be up for discussion by the association’s executive when it meets on Tuesday.
He did not comment further.
Al-Rawi, in a release last week, said that the $1.2 billion case against Jones had been discontinued after new documents containing comments from Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson were obtained.
Jones was accused in 2013 of a breach of fiduciary duty and alleged mismanagement in relation to the construction of the GTL plant at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre site, which was scheduled to be built at a cost of $2.7 billion to convert natural gas to diesel, but instead cost an extra $1.12 billion in addition to the original estimate.
Al-Rawi said the matter was determined on the basis of Nelson’s advice that the matter could not proceed.
Nelson was the attorney whose original advice led to the initiation of the lawsuit.
Al-Rawi said at the date of trial of the matter Petrotrin had no evidence before the court as no witness statements were filed by it.
Following Al-Rawi’s release, attorney Varun Debideen, one of the attorneys assigned to prosecute the former Petrotrin executive chairman, wrote to Al-Rawi rejecting claims that he acted unprofessionally.