At the top of the newscast, we had Wilfred Elrington’s comment on the unaccounted-for Venezuela money. But we caught him acting in his other job – as Attorney General. Elrington had just finished a meeting with the members of the Court of Appeals. He was accompanied by the new Solicitor General. She is Tanya Longsworth – Herwanger. She is a Belizean, from Corozal who has worked privately at Young’s Law Firm. Elrington told us she will be free to pursue all matters as the government’s attorney.
Hon. Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Attorney General
“She is going to be given free reign to perform the duties of Solicitor General. That is that we are not going to intervene politically in what she has to do. Things like decisions involving the government will have to be pursued based upon her own deliberate judgement and have nothing to do with any political interference. Those are things like for example the Merlene Bailey Commission report and the injunction that was taken ought, I my view, to have been challenged automatically.”
The other high profile office in Elrington's Ministry is the Director of Public Prosecutions. He has publicly criticized the man who currently holds the job, Lutchman Sooknandan. So now that he is Sooknandan’s boss, will he get rid of him? That’s what we asked today.
Hon. Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington,
“It is imperative in my view that the Department of the DPP be strengthened, it is imperative. The situation there is to my mind unacceptable and we have got to do something to strengthen. One of the problems that we have is that because of the nature of the appointments of people to these high posts, not easy to have them removed, even when they are not functioning and can’t function.”
Jules Vasquez,
I know when you were seeking office, you had an openly critically view of Mr. Sooknandan as the DPP. Do you still hold that view?
Hon. Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington,
“Well when you look at the facts Jules, when you look at the facts, as I used to say when I called in to the radio shows, I had nothing personal against Mr. Sooknandan but really and truly the DPP should be the person leading the prosecutions in court. He should be there in my mind to deal with the cases or he should be there to guide the young crown counsels who are appearing in court. He should be doing the hard cases, that is his job, he is being paid handsomely to do it and I can ask you the question, have you seen that happening. And what is happening is that the cases are being lost; cases are being nolle pros, cases are being thrown out; that is what I said would have happened when you have that kind of appointment.”
