Taxpayer tab for Manatt/ ‘Dudus’ Enquiry soon
TAXPAYERS should know in another two weeks the cost of the pending Commission of Enquiry into the controversial Manatt/ ‘Dudus’ affair that has engulfed the Bruce Golding administration for close to a year.
A senior Government official told the Observer on Friday that negotiations on the three commissioners’ salaries should be wrapped up in another two weeks. A secretariat and administrative personnel are now being put in place and a venue for the hearing has been sourced, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity since negotiations were ongoing.
“You can say more or less that they are close to a settlement,” said the official.
A final agreement will then be sent to Cabinet for approval. “The full cost will be known to the public after Cabinet meets,” added the official.
The commission will be chaired by Queen’s Counsel Emil George, who will be assisted by Anthony Irons, a retired permanent secretary, and Queen’s Counsel Donald Scharschmidt.
The Observer has learnt that the enquiry is set to cost taxpayers millions of dollars, spending which is sure to create a firestorm comparable to that of the stalled Finsac enquiry.
Great public outcry was sparked in January by revelations that the enquiry into the financial sector collapse of the mid-1990s and Finsac’s subsequent intervention would cost taxpayers $80 million, a good chunk of which was to go to commissioners retired Justice Boyd Carey, Charles Ross and Worrick Bogle. The Supreme Court has since booted Carey from the commission based on a challenge to his chairmanship on the ground of perceived bias. The matter is now before the appellate court.
Even before last month’s announcement by the prime minister that there would be an enquiry into the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips/Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition saga, opponents were already questioning the wisdom of such a move in light of the Government’s belt-tightening fiscal measures.
Still, others say the enquiry would be a waste of money as nothing fruitful would come from the sittings.
The Manatt/ ‘Dudus’ affair was set in train after the Golding administration decided to challenge a request by the United States in September 2009 for the extradition of Coke, then the reputed don of the Jamaica Labour Party-aligned Tivoli Gardens community. Coke is now awaiting trial on drug and gunrunning charges in a US jail.
As the stand-off dragged on, running into 2010, the US-based law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips was hired to lobby Washington on the request. Golding said in May that he had sanctioned the initiative but said that the hiring was on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party and not the Government.
At the centre of the controversy is attorney Harold Brady, who was reportedly approached to secure the services of the US law firm.
Golding had announced the Government’s intention to establish the commission in response to pressure from the Opposition People’s National Party and a number of interest groups and individuals who have been calling for an independent enquiry into both matters.