THE Chambers of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Legal Affairs have debunked the circulation of a counterfeit payment voucher purportedly for a quantum paid to Grenada Queen’s Counsel, Dr. Raphael Alexis.

Describing it as a “malicious” act, the Legal Affairs Ministry explained the image was shared on the Facebook account of Former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall and is now widely circulated on various social media platforms.
According to the image, the Attorney General’s Chambers paid Dr. Alexis $78M to make legal representation on behalf of the Government in the Court of Appeal for the appeals resulting directly from the passage of the No Confidence Motion but this, the Ministry of Legal Affairs said, is wholly inaccurate.

“The Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs, frontally deny and reject out of hand such a payment was ever made,” the Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. It added: “By no stretch of imagination, this document resembles or even comes close to the Payment Vouchers utilised by Government agencies.”

On the fake voucher being circulated, a number of discrepancies have been detected. The Legal Affairs Ministry pointed out that it does not use a “ref #” as displayed on the counterfeit document.

“The amount quoted by the document is substantially inaccurate and misleading. As stated before, the document is not authentic since there is a standard payment voucher utilised by Government agencies. The cheque number is not related to any payment for Dr. Alexis,” it further pointed out.

The Legal Affairs Ministry said persons who are acquainted with the Government’s Payment System can easily detect the irregularities and inconsistencies with this document. It said that, over the years, the Government, irrespective, of which political party is governing, has developed a standardised system of payment which is effective countrywide. This transaction with Dr. Alexis is no different and the system cannot be unilaterally abrogated, the Legal Affairs Minister stated.

“It is imperative to note that the two officers named that are attached to the AGC/MOLA appearing on the document cannot carry out such a transaction. Mrs. Tamika Barkoye, cannot approve such payment. Also, Ms. Simone Allen does not make payments of any sort,” it further explained.

The Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs view the circulation of the image of a fake payment voucher as another blatant attack on professionals of the public service under their watch and by extension Government.

“The circulation of this voucher along with initial speculation associated with Dr. Alexis being retained by the AGC/MOLA is calculated to be entirely mischievous and is highly unacceptable,” the Legal Affairs Ministry said.

It said under the former administration, the Attorney General’s Chamber expended hefty sums of monies to retain lawyers from within the Caribbean region to bolster their legal teams. “Examples include the Elections Petition Case of 2015, the lawyer being Abe Dabdoub of Jamaica and Seenauth Jairam SC of Trinidad and Tobago in the Budget- Cuts case to name a few,” the Minister pointed out. The image has been removed from Nandlall’s Facebook page.