Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says a private motion for the House of Representatives to express its loss of confidence in Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi was filed in the Parliament yesterday.
If approved it could be debated in about 12 days.
Persad-Bissessar said the motion was filed in the wake of the passage of the Strategic Services Agency (Amendment) Bill in Parliament.
The bill gives the SSA an expanded mandate to monitor, via the interception of calls, people suspected of engaging in serious crimes, including treason and money laundering.
The Opposition said there were insufficient checks and balances in the legislation to prevent abuse by the SSA.
Speaking during a news briefing at the Opposition Room, Tower D, Waterfront Centre, Port-of-Spain, yesterday Persad-Bissessar said once the amended bill was proclaimed the Opposition would initiate legal action to have it annulled.
She said the motion was filed in the name of MP for Oropouche East Dr Roodal Moonilal. It also seeks to have Al-Rawi’s appointment revoked by Prime Minister Keith Rowley.
Persad-Bissessar said the motion was based on Al-Rawi’s conduct of the Malcolm Jones matter, which related to the discontinuation of a case in the High Court against the former executive president of State-owned company, Petrotrin.
She said the decision lacked transparency and accountability and caused the State to lose more than $1.2 billion.
Persad-Bissessar said the motion was also brought because the AG “gave unsound and unfounded legal advice in the Parliament” when he said there were no privacy rights in the country.
She said Al-Rawi has compromised the Office of the Attorney General.
Persad-Bissessar also said Al-Rawi ought to have known that former temporary Independent senator Justin Junkere was on the payroll of his ministry. She dismissed Junkere’s claim that the 2015 state brief was offered by AG Garvin Nicholas.
According to the former prime minister it mattered not which AG offered the brief as what was important was that he voted while still employed in the Office of the AG.
Speaking with the media outside the Parliament minutes later, Al-Rawi said he welcomed the motion if and when it was debated in the House of Representatives. He said Persad-Bissessar was using the matter to distract public attention from an alleged attack by Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen on the former temporary Independent senator.
He said he was “absolutely confident that anything that the UNC brings, I will not only be capable of answering but very pleased to answer.”
He said he will “trounce” Moonilal’s motion “by simply presenting the facts.”
Al-Rawi said those facts include that the Malcom Jones matter was dealt with by the Petrotrin board and the SSA bill has passed through debate in the usual form.
On the issue of the privacy law, Al-Rawi told reporters that “there is a deliberate attempt to misconstrue the statement in relation to privacy. The law of privacy is quite clear. This is nothing more than a distraction.”
Also speaking at the impromptu briefing Works and Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds responded to a claim by Persad-Bissessar minutes earlier that the Government was uncaring and insensitive to the needs of children with cerebral palsy.
The parents, who did no work, were paid under the URP Social Initiative.
Persad-Bissessar said yesterday the Government “had no clue about people-centred development.”
She said the Government was attempting to attack the parents of those children. She said the Government was removing the human face in an attempt to get dollars and more taxes.
She said citizens who receive food cards depend on the card for day-to-day survival. Persad-Bissessar said the Government should say what means were being put in place to assist those in need.
But Hinds said Persad-Bissessar will have to explain that initiative during a forensic investigation into the URP Social Initiative.