Caricom employs external law firm to deal with re-appointment of secretary general

CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC)—The 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping has employed the services of a regional law firm to present its response to the challenge by Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar regarding the reappointment of Caricom Secretary General, Dr Carla Barnett. Caricom chairman and St Lucia’s Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre told a news conference on Monday that his recent visit to Port of Spain where he met with Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar was “very cordial". "Basically, the prime minister wanted an update.

I went to give an update on the advisory opinion … and what was the state of play on the opinion that the government of Trinidad and Tobago requested on the appointment of the secretary-general of Caricom. “As you know that the government of Trinidad and Tobago agreed that they wanted an advisory opinion from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on the appointment of the secretary-general. It was a very cordial meeting,” Pierre told reporters.

Pierre said that Trinidad and Tobago has prepared its position “and Caricom will review it through its counsel and I want to tell you that the secretary-general of Caricom and the counsel of Caricom have excused themselves from the process. “They’re not involved in the process at all. Neither the secretary-general of Carciom nor the counsel of Caricom is involved in the process.

The process has been handled by external counsel. “Caricom has employed external counsel so we want to ensure that the whole process is transparent. So Caricom’s secretary-general is not involved nor is the counsel of Caricom not involved either.” He said where the parties are at now, is that the external counsel that Caricom has employed “has all the documents, all the precedents as it relates to the appointment of secretary-general and the Trinidad and Tobago government will present its case to the judges”.

He gave no indication as to when that would occur. Caricom leaders at their summit in St Lucia last month had agreed to seek an advisory opinion from the CCJ after both Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica had written to them regarding the procedure used on re-appointing Barnett, the first woman to ever…