The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

LEGAL Affairs Minister Damien Gomez yesterday said it was too premature to discuss whether or not the government will renew the contract of Director of Public Prosecutions Vinette Graham-Allen.

Mr Gomez brushed off rumours that the DPP’s decision to take a three-month vacation was indicative of tensions within the office of the Attorney General over her tenure.

Mrs Graham-Allen, a Jamaican, was appointed in 2010, and her contract is reportedly to expire next year. Speaking to The Tribune at parliament, Mr Gomez said he could not confirm the expiry date at the time.

Mr Gomez said: “Her contract has not come up for renewal so it’s a little premature to discuss that. Anything can happen between now and then.

He added: “I haven’t really been thinking about it.”

The former Ingraham administration’s decision to appoint the Jamaican attorney to the government’s top prosecutor post was met with scathing criticism by the official opposition.

Shortly after the Christie-led administration took office in 2012, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he planned to conduct an independent review of then Deputy DPP Cheryl Grant-Bethell’s application for the post.

At the time, Mr Christie said: “I did meet with Cheryl Grant-Bethell. I’m not as familiar as I could be with the issues affecting her; I gave her an undertaking that I will make myself familiar with those issues. 

“We do have a Director of Public Prosecutions under contract. When you come to government, notwithstanding the best views articulated, one has to exercise good judgment when it comes to people who are in post.”

The former Deputy DPP was locked in a bitter dispute with the Ingraham administration over her failure to be appointed Director of the department.

After serving as Deputy for nine years, she was instead promoted to Deputy Law Reform and Revision Commissioner for a salary increase of $35 per month, a move she defined as a personal attack.

Mrs Grant-Bethell filed an application for judicial review after the appointment was given to Mrs GrahamAllen.

Senior Justice Isaacs refused to overturn Mrs Graham-Allen’s appointment to the post of DPP; however, he noted in his judgment that the Judicial and Legal Services Commission “failed to treat her fairly and that the advice tendered to the Governor General was flawed because the JLSC considered material they should not have had in their contemplation when they purported to do so”.

Speaking on the matter in the House of Assembly in 2011, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham indicated that he had “good and valid reasons” for not making Mrs Grant-Bethell DPP. He said he had previously supported Mrs Grant-Bethell for the DPP’s post, but ultimately withdrew his support based on unspecified “information” that he had received, which he said gave him “good and valid reasons” to withdraw.

Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for PLP senators in 2012, Mr Christie added: “Ms Grant-Bethell is fully aware of my own authority in this matter. I will in good faith examine the position – and independent of the Attorney General – I will arrive at my position as what is the right thing to do in all of the circumstances.”