HEAD of the Criminal Bar Association Israel Khan, SC, believes there is “more in the mortar than the pestle,” behind Chief Justice Ivor Archie’s chastisement of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, in relation to the latter’s complaints about staff shortages and other issues affecting the operations of his office.
The controversy surrounding staff shortages at the DPP’s office escalated on Friday with Archie accusing Gaspard of negligence in the discharge of aspects of his function.
In a brief response to Archie’s statement on Saturday, Khan questioned the CJ’s sudden decision to speak out against Gaspard’s performance as DPP.
“I am wondering why it was necessary for the honourable Chief Justice to jump into this matter. Who is he defending?” he asked.
“No one accused the Chief Justice or the Judicial and Legal Services Commission of not filling the vacancies. So he has worsened the situation.
“I think there is more in the mortar than the pestle in the Chief Justice coming out to say what he is saying.”
Khan argued the CJ does not have a budget to hire lawyers in the DPP’s office “So I am wondering why he is saying the DPP did not make recommendations to fill the vacancies after three of the top senior officers were promoted to judgeship.
“We do not know if the other people automatically are qualified to be deputy director of public prosecutions.”
He said some of the issues Archie raised in the statement do not make sense.
“But the sum total of it is that it was not necessary to jump into this matter and worsen the situation.”
He said the Criminal Bar Association will issue a response to Archie’s statement tomorrow.
Meanwhile, former law association president Martin Daly, SC, opted not to comment decisively on Archie’s statement but raised several questions in relation to the operations of the DPP’s office.
“All I can say at this stage is that we need to have the allegations of fact being so stridently made by some of the highest office holders in the land. For example, ‘What is the reason the Park Street building is allegedly being shunned by the DPP? And did the Government enter into that expensive lease without investigating whether the building was fit for purpose?” he said via WhatsApp on Saturday.
Daly also wanted to know if the alleged filing of a small number of indictments was related to lack of staff and whether the DPP been tardy in putting forward candidates for appointment to his department.
“Are appointments and the DPP’s ability to put forward candidates for appointment being hindered by an unreasonable insistence that new hires will only be on contracts which do not provide all the benefits of permanent employment?
Newsday contacted several other attorneys seeking their comment on the issue but they declined.
In a six-page statement posted on the Judiciary’s Facebook page and website, the CJ broke his silence on the simmering issue, saying he felt compelled to
