No conflict of interest exists. That’s the view of Law Association president Reginald Armour to whom Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi passed the Petrotrin report on the Malcolm Jones matter.
This followed revelations yesterday in Companies’ Registrar records showing that three directors of a company, known as Abox Investments Ltd, in 2004 were attorney Armour (listed at 90 Maraval Road), attorney Vanessa Gopaul (same address) and attorney Al-Rawi (at 45a St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain). The record was stamped November 9, 2004.
Al-Rawi recently said he had passed the Jones’ report to the association. That body wrote him recently seeking a copy since members wanted to examine it, the T&T Guardian learned. On the Abox company where he and Al-Rawi once served, Armour said he and Gopaul sold their shares in the company years ago and have no financial interest in it. “There’s no conflict of interest,” he added.
Al-Rawi confirmed Armour was a participant in the 2004 venture but later sold his interest. Noting that conflict of interest could only arise if there was information one had that caused one to be in conflict with the issue at hand, he added.
“As a professional lawyer, I have worked with Mr Armour on the same legal team in loads of matters. I have also worked against him on different legal teams opposed to his point of view,” he said.
Saying the Abox matter was irrelevant, he said there could be no conflict of interest in the current Jones’ report matter since it was a pure independent legal perspective offered by the Law Association in relation to the Petrotrin discontinuation of the matter against Jones. He maintained he assisted transparency with the Petrotrin issue by putting the file out for viewing by the Law Association.
Al-Rawi said the Abox company was not involved in the issue at hand. “If there was to be a parting of the ways on the basis of this kind of situation, then nobody in T&T would be able to speak to me on any matters since my years of practice I have interacted with almost everyone in the legal profession in some form or fashion.”
The association concluded its discussions on the Jones’ report on Tuesday. The file concerned Petrotrin’s discontinuation of the legal matter against Jones started in the past PP administration’s tenure involving the controversial Gas to Liquids (GTL) plan.