AG: I was only correcting misinformation fed to the public

Attorney General Glenda Morean yesterday denied charges made by UNC MP Ganga Singh that she was interfering in the Linquist investigation into WASA, and in doing so she was compromising the independence of the inquiry.

Morean was speaking at a news conference following a meeting with the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) at her Cabildo Chambers office. Morean said she was merely correcting an inaccuracy which was put in the public domain by Singh, when he informed the population (via the media)  that he had passed on certain documents to Lindquist. She said based on information she had, Singh gave no documents. “So he is misleading the population,” she said. Asked whether she received daily reports on the investigations, Morean said she has received information, though not on a daily basis.  Noting that it was the government which requisitioned a study, she said she was entitled as Attorney General to get reports.  “I am not commenting on the merits or demerits, or going into the integity of the investigation, but I saw something reported which was incorrect and I corrected that.” On Singh’s call for her resignation because she was interfering with the investigation, the AG said: “Total politics. And this is the silly season (local government elections).”

 She said her only comment on the Lindquist probe related to the veracity of a statement made to the media by Singh. “What he can say is whether what I said was correct or incorrect,” she said. About her statements on Singh that he had revealed nothing new to Lindquist, Morean said the statement which was correct, was based on a report  she was given. Asked about the propriety of making statements about an issue under investigations, Morean said she was not discussing the merits of the case. “I am correcting misinformation that is being given to the public. I am not dealing with the investigation as such, but I am dealing with the misinformation that is being thrown out to the public by Mr Singh,” she said. She added that she did not think that public confidence in the investigation could be jeopardised by anything she said. Asked whether she should have someone independent dealing with the investigators, Morean said she was not determining whether anyone was guilty of any wrongful act or not. “So that I am not part of the investigation as such...but I am the Attorney General. I have to protect the public interest, and if the public is being fed misinformation I am entitled to correct that,” she said.

She added that she didn’t want to go into the matter any further because she would not want to prejudice any prosecution (if a prosecution becomes  necessary). The Attorney General also said she would prefer not to “get into” the “shoot-to-kill” advice given to the police by Christopher Holder of the Police Second Division. She said there was a question of the “context” in which things are said. Pressed further, the Attorney General said a policeman had to make a judgement depending on the circumstances with which he is confronted. “And that is police work,” she said, declining to explain herself any further. The Attorney General said she was now working on anti-terrorism legislation and she was hoping to have it out for public comment by next week. On the question of kidnapping and fears that Mark Prescott may have been taken out of the country, Morean said this country has laws in place aimed at preventing persons from illegally taking children out of the country. But, she noted, in any system that is devised, persons find ways of contravening it. “You will always find someone who is ingenious enough to find a way — whether it would be successful or not — to get around the system,” she said. PRO of the NPTA, Maureen Taylor-Ryan said the country also needed to deal with the crime wave in the East-West Corridor especially  in Laventille. “If we don’t attend to it now it would spread right through the country,” she said.