Manatt enquiry bill soars
Published:Wednesday | March 30, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
The Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry appears to have doubled in cost to Jamaican taxpayers.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who will today resume his testimony before the commission, yesterday shared cost estimates with the House of Representatives which indicate the enquiry could leave the country with a $78-million bill.
The approved spending for the commission is $37 million.
"The final cost to the public purse of the enquiry cannot be determined until it is concluded," said Golding, who was responding to questions posed by Central Kingston Member of Parliament Ronald Thwaites.
Included in the cost to the taxpayers is $24.1 million, which has been approved by Cabinet, to pay for legal representation for several public officials at the enquiry.
Paid per hour
Senior lawyers representing public officials are earning the same as commission Chairman Emil George. They are being paid US$350, or J$29,750 per hour. Junior lawyers are paid US$250, or J$21,250 per hour, the same as the other two commissioners.
Golding is paying his own legal fees.
"I took a personal decision that the cost of my legal representation would not be borne by the people of Jamaica," the prime minister told the House yesterday.
Golding said an estimated $33 million of the $37 million which was budgeted for the commission has already been used up.
The legal cost of lawyers representing the People's National Party and Dr Peter Phillips are not being borne by taxpayers.
The commission, which was set to end in February, has twice been extended and is now due to conclude May 16.
Golding said it was estimated that the additional cost as a result of the extension could be in the region of $21 million.
The projected final cost of the enquiry far outstrips the $55.3 million which the Government spent this fiscal year to train personnel at the Caribbean Regional Drug Trafficking Centre to carry out surveillance and other operational issues in the control of trafficking of narcotics and other illicit drugs.
The projected expenditure would also be greater than the $68 million given to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse to spend last year.
The Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry was set up to examine the Government's handling of the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the subsequent hiring of US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.