Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi is urging attorney Gerald Ramdeen to think again about his “curious” decision to give back about 12 State briefs.
Al-Rawi made the statement after Ramdeen made the announcement during a news conference at his Woodbrook office in an apparent response to Al-Rawi’s public claims that he (Ramdeen) was the recipient of $26 million, $30 million and even $36 million for work done on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General.
Asked to give the correct figure, Ramdeen was unable to.
“I can’t say for sure which of the figures it is because the last time they tallied it they double-counted almost half of my fees,” he said.
However, he said he did not want Al-Rawi to feel that he (Ramdeen) “is going to continue to earn all of these millions and I will put a stop on it now.”
Saying he did not “consider it right for Al-Rawi to continue making all these statements in public about my fees,” Ramdeen said he had “handed back all of the briefs” to Al-Rawi. He then read a letter he wrote on the matter to the Solicitor General, Carol Hernandez, listing the briefs he had handed back to the AG. He said one of the matters related to a case brought by Udecott against its former executive chairman Calder Hart.
In his letter, Ramdeen also commented on the value for an audit which was commissioned by the Office of the Attorney General for work done by attorneys on behalf of the State.
He said any concerns about his fees should have been brought to his attention before the audit was commissioned but said in the wake of the audit Al-Rawi must say when the audit was commissioned and by whom. He also wanted to know if he was the one who was subject to the audit.
Asked if his decision to hand back the briefs was not unethical, since he would have already earned money, Ramdeen said for the last two years of the former government he had not been paid for any work done for the State.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Al-Rawi, however, maintained that Ramdeen’s fees “continue to climb because the tally of those figures is an ongoing process.”
He said the figure was about $35 to $36 million as at yesterday’s date, adding: “There are still fees to be brought in and that figure may climb.”
He said the former People’s Partnership government “spent over $1.4 billion in legal fees (and) that number is still climbing,” and the audit being conducted was “in respect of all fees paid to all attorneys.”
The AG said Ramdeen was the only attorney who had a problem with the value for money audit.
He said he had “specifically maintained that Ramdeen is to continue in the briefs that he obtained from the State because he has been paid in respect of the work done and work which is on deck to go to trial.”
He said in the circumstances “it will not be appropriate to have taxpayers pay twice when another attorney has been paid.” He said Ramdeen “will do well to reflect upon the fact that the return of a brief is in most circumstances not a very simple process.”