Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard yesterday confirmed it was at his request that former attorney general Anand Ramlogan retained the services of forensic accounting firm Deloitte to assist the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau in the collapse of CL Financial.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian, Gaspard said while he had been given the Bob Lindquist Forensic Audit into the Clico matter, “he (Lindquist) did not provide enough evidence and from the point of view of garnering of evidence we needed more.”
Gaspard said: “The investigation will not be able to proceed without the assistance of the forensic audit, hence the reason I went through the trouble to retain Deloitte, a reputable firm which is disinterested in the affairs of CL Financial and Clico.”
The DPP admitted there were other forensic accounting firms which were interested but he needed “a firm which had no interest in the matter.”
However, the forensic audit hit a snag after the State failed to meet some payments to Deloitte. Gaspard could not immediately say how many invoices had been submitted by the firm since it was retained two years ago, as he did not have the information in front of him at the time.
But he did admit that “I am usually notified by Deloitte if the payments are not made.” He said failure to pay the firm would delay completion of the work.
Gaspard said the political directorate must now show it was serious about bringing the Clico matter to closure but that depended on how quickly Deloitte was paid.
Apart from the payment issue, Gaspard said almost two years after the firm was retained it had not yet completed its work “because of the sheer volume of material that they are working on.”
But despite that, he said: “I can assure you that they have gone a considerable way towards reaching their destination.”
Sources at the office of the Attorney General yesterday told the T&T Guardian two tranches of payments had been made to Deloitte, one of US$2.3 million and another of US$5 million. The AG’s office has also taken a note to Cabinet for an additional TT$30 million to pay the firm.
The investigations into the collapse of CL Financial and subsidiaries have so far cost the country close to TT$300 million.
The Colman enquiry cost upwards of TT$100 million, the Lindquist enquiry cost just under TT$100 million, and now the Deloitte audit, according to sources at the AG’s office, has already cost over TT$40 million. Legal fees in the matter have so far cost the State over $1.5 billion.
The DPP was given a copy of the Colman Report into Clico in July of this year. That report is said to contain evidence which is also being considered as part of the DPP’s criminal investigation into Clico. Asked about the status of that investigation yesterday, Gaspard preferred to “reserve comment” at this stage.