It is completely untrue, according to Prime Minister Keith Rowley, that he wants to do rid of the DPP. Dr. Rowley stated at the post-cabinet press conference that “There is no action of the government, no intention of the government to interfere with the DPP’s work in his office.”
He claimed to have voiced his worries about the DPP’s office renting an empty facility for $600,000 a month. A building that “has queries” is accessible, he claimed, and those questions have been answered. That, according to Dr. Rowley, is evidence that the administration both paid attention to the DPP and intends to do away with it.
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“So all those who are speculating that what you’re seeing is something to do with the government, and whoever else wants to get rid of the DPP. We have no interest in that,” He emphasized. “Except, we want to know that the opposite of the DPP job is going on the way it ought to go on and that the DPP can rely whoever is in that office can rely on 110% support from the government of Trinidad and Tobago, where the cabinet is involved to contribute to that work.”
One of the DPP’s chief complaints is that his office is understaffed. Dr. Rowley claimed that because the best attorneys are in private practice and newly graduated attorneys lack the necessary expertise, the government is also thinking about hiring foreign attorneys to work in the DPP’s office.
Prime Minister Rowley noted, “The bulk of the DPP’s work in the court on matters, especially major matters, will have to be done by certainly experienced lawyers. And what did we do? We sat down and we discussed that maybe the time has come for us to look outside of Trinidad and Tobago to bring in whether it’s six or eight or 10 or 12 lawyers to put them in a DPP office.”