[UPDATED] AG: Griffith will get chance to respond to FUL audit report

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Attorney General Reginald Armour. File photo/Jeff K Mayers

THE OFFICE of the Attorney General has written to former police Gary Griffth’s attorney Larry Lalla saying his client and all those affected by the finding of the Firearms Users Licence (FUL) audit report will be given the chance to respond before the Prime Minister lays it, or a summary of it, in Parliament.

The AG’s letter, signed by director (legal) Tenille Ramkissoon, was issued to Lalla on Tuesday in response to Lalla and another of Griffith’s attorneys Avery Sinanan SC, who last week threatened legal action if the report is laid in Parliament before their client was given a sufficient chance to comment.

The AG’s office wrote, “Although it is proposed that the audit report or any summary thereof will eventually be laid in Parliament, it is not proposed that same be laid until and unless the matters stated below are actioned, by reason of which it is not proposed to lay the audit report or any summary thereof in Parliament at this time.”

Ramkissoon said that “consideration is further being given to having that person (or body of persons) report back to the Honorable Prime Minister or such other persons as the Honourable Prime Minister may direct…”

“The Attorney General is of the opinion that fairness and the law demand that before there be any publication of the report or its summary, all persons who may be adversely affected by the findings therein should be afforded the opportunity to comment and make representations on any such specific findings.”

The letter added that the report will not be laid in a manner “as to prejudice its value as an investigative audit report.”

Later on Tuesday, Lalla told Newsday via a Whatsapp voicenote that while he appreciated that his client’s name will “not be unfairly tarnished and besmirched” by the executive report being laid in the Parliament, he is concerned that letter appears to assume “investigatory powers” onto the Prime Minister.

“The letter seems to indicate that the Prime Minister is going to control the further investigation that takes place in relation to that report,” Lalla said.

“The Prime Minister does not have that power; that investigatory power lies with the police, and only in a dictatorship would a Prime Minister arrogate such power onto himself.

“So, that misplaced power originating out of the Attorney General’s office, that misplaced attention rather, ought to be corrected.”

The FUL audit report is believed to include a summary into an investigation into the issuing of firearms users’ licences at the police service’s firearms department and other operations and practices relative to firearms users’ licences, completed by retired ACP Wellington Virgil, retired ACP Raymond Craig, retired Inspector Lennard Charles, and others.

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