00:00Attorney General Senior Counsel Reginald Amor says he's not responsible for the partial
00:05laying of the Stanley John report on Tuesday.
00:09Responding to queries from TV6, the AG says he sent the interim report to the Senate clerk
00:14at the same time as the final one and they admitted that they omitted to upload it.
00:21The AG says he neither omitted nor deliberately did not lay the interim report.
00:27The interim report was shared with media at 7.45 on Tuesday evening and details what
00:34happened to the missing file in the malicious prosecution case involving the nine men accused
00:40of murdering Vindra Naipaul Kulman.
00:43The file was received by the registry at the Solicitor General's office on Level 17 of
00:49Tower C on June 22, 2020 and was placed with other files to be delivered to the Chief State
00:57Solicitor's office just one level up on Level 18 of the same tower.
01:03The report says when delivered, all files were received and recorded except the file
01:09in question, CV 2020-01243.
01:14The Solicitor General at the time became aware of the matter in July of 2021 and when she
01:20inquired of the registry, she was told it could not be located.
01:25One month later, the file was discovered on the Deputy Solicitor General Neil Byam's
01:30desk in his office, but his office was at the time unoccupied as he demitted office
01:37earlier that year and it was instead used to store files stacked in boxes.
01:42The investigative team noted when informed, the Solicitor General at the time took no
01:47action to find out why the file was deliberately placed there.
01:52The report reads, quote, we would have expected her to act with a level of dispatch to have
01:57the file secured and or immediately brought to her.
02:01She also failed to take any steps to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the disappearance
02:07and subsequent discovery of the file, end quote.
02:11And no effort, the Stanley John team says, was made by the acting Solicitor General to
02:16inform the Attorney General of the serious matter.
02:20The report says it is likely it was secreted in the office of the now deceased Deputy Solicitor
02:26General Byam by someone attached to the Solicitor General's department.
02:32It took almost one year for a temporary file to be reconstituted in May of 2022.
02:40The Stanley John investigative team found there was ineptitude and incompetence by the
02:46Solicitor General and chief solicitor's departments.
02:50The malicious prosecution claim, it said, came during the COVID-19 pandemic when staff
02:55worked on a rostered basis and there were irregularities in daily duties.
03:01But the Stanley John investigative team notes, quote, it is no excuse for the total failure
03:07to protect the interest of the state in this matter, end quote.
03:11It also found there was lackluster interest shown by staff in the office of the chief
03:16state solicitor to ensure the Solicitor General's department was made aware of the first hearing.
03:23Such inefficiency in the performance of duties, it says, was compounded by the absence of
03:29any concern shown by the office of the Solicitor General.
03:34In their recommendations, the team said government should consider if the acting Solicitor General
03:39is the right person for the post.
03:42They should also consider installing security cameras at the registry of the Solicitor General's
03:47department.
03:48A data entry clock, they say, should be immediately appointed to scan and upload all files brought
03:54to the Solicitor General's department.
03:57Proper background checks, they say, should be done on all staff recruited to the Solicitor
04:02General's department and staff attached to the Solicitor General's department who failed
04:08in their duty to the state should be transferred.
04:11Arvishi Tiwari, Rupnurain, TV6 News.
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