Makeover for DPP Office

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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/316m-MAKEOVER--for-DPP-OFFICE-208756211.html


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$31.6m MAKEOVER for DPP OFFICE
By Anna Ramdass anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com

Story Created: May 23, 2013 at 9:52 PM ECT

Story Updated: May 24, 2013 at 7:11 AM ECT

Just days after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard was mentioned in an alleged Section 34 e-mail conspiracy, Cabinet has announced a multi-million-dollar revamp of the DPP’s Office.

 The controversial e-mail exchanges were revealed in Parliament by Opposition Leader Keith Rowley in which it was inferred that the DPP was to be asked to become a judge by the government which he has denied.

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan announced yesterday that $31,647,396 will be spent to increase staff from 30 to 237 at the DPP’s office while another $16,391,400 will be expended on infrastructural costs to accommodate the staff increase.

The Judiciary will also benefit from funding with an approved $13.543 million to improve its system.

 Ramlogan was speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair as he disclosed these figures and the upcoming upgrades.

He said in order to implement the Bill to abolish preliminary enquiries, logistical and capacity issues in the justice system must be addressed and two stakeholders were consulted—the Office of the DPP and the Judiciary.

A new organisational structure for the DPP’s Office, he said, was approved and will be formalised to include an additional 100 legal offices and 107 civil offices in terms of support staff.

Ramlogan said the one post of DPP will remain but direct deputy DPPs will be increased from two to three and assistant DPPs from three to six.

These posts are to take effect from June 1, 2013 and the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) has the responsibility to fill the positions.

Ramlogan said the DPP’s Office is critical in the crime fight and this change was an historic one as nothing has ever been done since 1976 to improve it.

He said over the past ten years Governments have been grappling with curbing increasing crime while the DPP’s Office continued to suffer a lack of resources.

At present, Ramlogan said the DPP’s Office handled just about five per cent of all preliminary enquiries, adding that the department was “stretched to the limit” with 29 confirmed positions for attorneys, including the DPP post.

He said some 30 contract officers were hired over the years but was still not sufficient to alleviate the burden.

With respect to the Judiciary, Ramlogan said the funds would be used to meet additional necessary works in the area of accommodation, information, communication technology, court transcription services and also a secured courier service.

He said case load statistics showed that on average, 15,000 matters were previously heard by the magistrates’ courts and they will now be heard by masters of the High Court at the sufficiency hearing to decide which matters can go forward when they are ready.

In October last year, Ramlogan said to prepare and maintain the time limits and the schedule set out in the Act for the sufficiency hearing and to ensure matters go quickly to trial,  Cabinet had approved an increase in  staff.

These include four judges, nine Masters of the High Court, five new assistant registrars and deputy marshals, 17 judicial support officers, 12 case management officers and ten bailiffs, 17 judicial secretaries, 17 judicial research assistants and 17 court orderlies.

Infrastructure upgrades were also approved to house new staff.

Ramlogan said there will be changes to the Port of Spain Supreme Court, St George West Magistrates’ Court, Tunapuna Magistrates’ Court, San Fernando Magistrates’ Court, Tobago Supreme Court and the San Fernando Industrial Court.

The rest of the money is for outfitting requirements. He added that there was a backlog of notes that require transcribing in order for appeals to be heard with some 10,000 pages of notes for 700 cases that needed to be transcribed.

Cabinet, he said, agreed to hire qualified part-time court transcriptionists, who have already been identified and offered short term contracts.

 

Breakdown of costs for

Judiciary expenditure:


• Court room and office space—$7.7 million.


• ICT—$3.97 million.


• Court transcriptionsists—$700,000.


• Secure courier service—$1.8 million

(2 years).

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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Candid-Camera-210780741.html

STAFF AT the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Port of Spain have expressed grave concern that their every move is being monitored and recorded on camera at the Office of the Attorney General.

The revelation comes in the wake of a security contract being awarded to a company owned by one of the United National Congress’s main party financiers and allegations of electronic monitoring devices being planted at the office to monitor the conversations of the DPP Roger Gaspard during the Section 34 debacle.

Concerned staffers told the Express that they only recently learned that cameras throughout Winsure building, on Richmond Street, can be accessed remotely at the ground floor of Cabildo Chambers, the head office of the Attorney General, on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain.

Reached for comment on the report, Gaspard would only say, “I have no comment at this stage.”

But in response to the concerns raised by staffers at the DPP’s Office, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, in a telephone interview last night, said, “At no point in time has anyone voiced or raised concern about these matters with me. So that it has never been an issue to warrant my involvement in any way. I therefore do not understand how what was never a concern in the past is now being raised as though it is a novelty.

“I believe this is being mischievously and maliciously raised to prop up and give credence to the incredible e-mail fiasco.”

The AG said were it not for the enquiries made by the Express he would not even have been aware of the security cameras at the DPP’s office are being monitored at his own office.

“This is news to me. I was not aware of this,” he said.

“I would not be surprised if it exists, indeed I hope that it does, because it would be foolish to have security cameras that are not capable of being accessed by persons who are supposed to be monitoring the area that these cameras cover,” Ramlogan said.

“I do not know where the monitoring takes place as I have never had the cause or desire to make such enquiries. It is common knowledge that regular home security cameras can be remotely accessed via the Internet from one’s laptop or cellphone with the relevant security password,” he added.

The AG said that the security arrangements at his Ministry were the responsibility of the Facilities Unit, and were in place before his assumption to office. He said that he has confined himself to “the management of legal matters that involve the State and the public’s interest”.

The unit responsible for monitoring and reviewing the data from the DPP’s Office is the Facilities Management Unit, an independent unit at the Ministry of the Attorney General managed by Kyle Thomas.

Thomas, who had been working at the Ministry of the AG since 2004, was appointed facilities manager on May 3, 2010.

Sources said that while Thomas is reportedly the only authorised person to access the room where the monitors are located he will have to comply if the Attorney General made a request for any data to be handed over.

Sources told the Express that Thomas had visited the DPP’s office several times during the period when the shift of a new security firm, Executive Bodyguards Services Ltd (EBSL), owned by Krishna Lalla’s Super Industrial Services, had taken over from Innovative Security Technologies Ltd, of Cipero Road, San Fernando since December 2012. Cameras at the DPP’s office were also changed in January 2013, staffers said.

Sources told the Express that the DPP’s south-based office has not yet changed over from Innovative to EBSL because of concerns raised by staff over the fact that the walls around the offices were not being built all the way up to the ceiling, and this caused grave security concerns because of the sensitive information which passes through the office.

Innovative Security remains on a month-to-month basis pending the completion of renovation works there.

Data gleaned from strategically placed hi-tech cameras, document every single person who enters and leaves the DPP’s Office on a daily basis and also monitors movement on the five floors of the building and its perimeter.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Thomas told the Express, “EBSL is not nor has ever been responsible for the CCTV equipment at the Ministry,” adding that the systems existed since the facilities opened years ago.

A release from the Ministry of the Attorney General yesterday also noted that EBSL was approved by the Central Tender’s Board and assumed duties on December 1, 2012.

“In so far as it is being implied or suggested that EBSL may have been responsible for the alleged breach in security at the Office of the DPP that lead to the alleged bugging of the DPP’s conference room, it should be noted that such an occurrence predated their assumption of duties.

According to the e-mails the alleged bugging occurred in November 2012 and EBSL assumed duties in December 2012. Innovative was in fact responsible for the provision of security arrangements at the Office of the DPP at that time,” the release added.

It was during the no-confidence motion by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley against the Prime Minister and the Government that a thread of 31 e-mails purporting to be sent from e-mail address of the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, the Prime Minister’s National Security Advisor Gary Griffith and Local Government Minister Suruj Rambachan mentioned the monitoring of the DPP’s office.

The authenticity of the e-mails is now the subject of a police investigation headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mervyn Richardson.