Lindquist talks to AG

SENIOR officers of the Anti-Corruption Squad said yesterday they have not been reporting  their findings in the Water Farm Limited investigations to Attorney General Glenda Morean.

Officers claimed the only persons they report to are Police Commissioner Hilton Guy and Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson. They added, however, that Canadian Forensic Accountant Bob Lindquist was hired by the AG to carry out several investigations, and if the AG is being briefed by Lindquist in his investigations, that is not a matter for the police to be questioned about. On Tuesday, Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh called for the immediate resignation of the Attorney General. He accused her of attempting to interfere in the investigation into allegations of corruption at WASA relating to the $51 million out of court settlement to Water Farm Limited. The AG was quoted last week as claiming that Singh had presented no new evidence to Lindquist in the Water Farm Limited Investigation. She was also quoted as saying that Singh presented no documents to support his claim. Singh is claiming that the AG overstepped the boundaries of her constitutional mandate, and is usurping and subverting the investigative role of the police and the independence of the DPP.

Former AG Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said yesterday that when he was AG and Lindquist was hired to assist the police in their investigations, he never had any day to day contact with investigators. “Any AG under our system ought to detach the office from the day to day investigations, and even if Lindquist reports to the AG it could be in the form of written or oral reports, but it should be in the presence of the Commissioner of Police, or the investigators.” He said court decisions in the Commonwealth have been declared null and void where there was political interference in the investigations which the court felt amounted to an abuse of process. “I do not know the facts of the present matter, and I am speaking purely from a general point of view,” said the former AG.