By Andre Bagoo Saturday, October 3 2009

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What more can I say?: Attorney General John Jeremie makes a point in the Senate during debate on the Validation Bill on Thursday night. ...

ATTORNEY General John Jeremie yesterday said Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart does not report to him and is not under his control, as he reacted to news that lawyers for Udecott and the Uff Commission of Inquiry yesterday by consent agreed to virtually freeze the inquiry.

“He is not under my control and he cannot be under my control,” Jeremie noted. “I am the Attorney General. Calder Hart is a chairman of a state enterprise which does not report to me. He would report to somebody else not me.”

Jeremie’s comments came as he vowed to do whatever it takes to protect the Uff inquiry even as lawyers for Udecott yesterday persisted in a court action which has now resulted in a High Court order barring inquiry chairman Prof John Uff from preparing a final report.

Last month, Uff indicated he would prepare an interim report to submit to President George Maxwell Richards pending the determination of pending legal challenges by Udecott.

“I am taking every step that is available to me to protect the Commission of Inquiry,” Jeremie said. “There are legislative steps and those involve the validating legislation. That legislation is a pre-condition; the proceedings must be validated.”

Additionally, Jeremie noted that he was funding world-renowned attorneys for Uff to fight Udecott’s latest court matter which challenges the proceedings on the basis of apparent bias.

“I am going to fund Professor Uff’s rebuttal of the claim against him,” Jeremie noted. “That is what, in practical terms, I can do to protect the Commission of Inquiry.”

But Jeremie’s former Cabinet colleague, Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley yesterday argued, the State was sending contradictory signals in its approach to the inquiry.

“I want the Attorney General to tell me what he was talking about when, on Thursday, he spoke about the Government’s sacred duty to ensure that it saves the inquiry,” Rowley said. “It is now clear that Udecott has had its wish of stopping the inquiry and they will now proceed to lawyer it to death.”

Asked yesterday about the apparent discord in the Government’s approach to the inquiry with a state enterprise apparently battling Cabinet, Jeremie said, “what they (Udecott) are seeking to do is argue a claim in bias. I really cannot comment on the actions of Udecott. It has a board and a minister it must account to.”

“Udecott is taking action which they consider to be in their self-interest. At some point in time a balance would need to be struck between the actions which they take and the expectations of the State,” Jeremie added. He did not say if that point in time has come.

However, in relation to the court order made by Justice Mira Dean-Armorer yesterday, Jeremie said, “I am studying it and taking advice on it. Professor Uff has some of the best legal minds in the world giving him advice on the order in respect of it so I would not wish to give advice on that.”