Thursday, December 10 2009

Senior Independent Senator Dana Seetahal, SC, has been paid over $5.3 million in legal fees from the State, Attorney General (AG) John Jeremie disclosed to the Senate on Tuesday.

The question was posed by an Opposition member to the AG during a sitting of the Senate, with a request to disclose the fees paid to Seetahal as well as Senior Counsel Elton Prescott and Deborah Peake.

Jeremie, after receiving information which was immediately available, also revealed that Prescott and Peake had received legal fees of $507,150 and $138,000, respectively.

The question stated, “Could the Attorney General provide the Senate with the quantum of legal or consultancy fees, paid to Senior Counsel appointed after January 1, 2005 by any State enterprise, municipal corporation, statutory authority, government ministry or other State agency from the period of their respective appointment to June 16, 2009?”

The question was related to legal fees paid to attorneys appointed as Senior Counsel after January 1, 2005.

Seetahal, Prescott and Peake were promoted to “silk” on January 31, 2006.

Jeremie was the only other attorney made Senior Counsel that day.

But in an interview yesterday, Seetahal said the accumulation of legal fees paid to her included her retainer to do appeals, as well as several other criminal and civil matters totalling over 100.

She noted that the question posed in the Senate was put to the Attorney General, and was intended to show her fees as the highest.

“Clearly, I’m the only one who appears to have been retained by the AG,” Seetahal said.

She noted that the question was originally written to include Senior Counsel appointed after 2002, but later changed to encompass those appointed after January, 2005.

“It ought to be probably all Senior Counsel retained by the State over the past five years,” she said.

According to the senior attorney, the question was phrased and amended so that the public would only see her fees.

“The public will not know about the other Senior Counsel who are retained by other State bodies,” she said.

She said that had other Government Ministries and State agencies been asked to reveal their legal fees for the same period, her’s would not have been the highest.

“If they ask HDC, Udecott or WASA, or any Ministry, you would get a true picture,” she said.

“I believe in transparency and fairness, but it must be for all. What is good for one must be good for all.”

She noted that she had been retained only by the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions.

1. Dana Seetahal, SC, has been retained in several “high profile” cases for the State, including the lawsuit against Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr where the State is attempting to recover payment for the destruction caused in the 1990 attempted coup.

2. She is also the lead prosecutor in the criminal trial against Bakr on charges of Sedition following his Eid-ul-Fitr sermon on November 4, 2005, at his Mucurapo Road Mosque.

3. Seetahal also prosecuted in the preliminary inquiry against 12 men charged with the murder of businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman.