Salt Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. Photo courtesy Turks and Caicos Tourist Board.
COCKBURN TOWN, Turks and Caicos-- Civil recovery efforts underway in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) since December 2009, were never going to be swift – or cheap. It’s been 12.5 years with almost US $23 million in taxpayers’ money spent.
Anyone hoping the process launched in the wake of the commission of inquiry would help restore government coffers will be disappointed to learn the money clawed back to date is still outweighed by the costs.
Around $22.4 million has been recouped so far – in what is said to be one of the largest asset recovery programmes in the world – with just over another $7 million due for collection.
Figures confirmed to the Weekly News reveal that for the $22.8 million price tag there have been a total of 86 recoveries to date.
The process has, however, also returned several thousand acres of Crown land to the government.
“In dollars and cents, the amount collected might not sound like much,” Attorney General (AG) Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles conceded during an interview with the Weekly News.
“But across the Islands we have recovered just over 4,000 acres of Crown land which is not included in that quantum. On Salt Cay alone, 1,500 acres have been recovered – prime land that can now be used for good, credible investment.”
Lawyers were appointed 10 months after the commission of inquiry ended in early 2009 to help reclaim improperly obtained assets. Much of the “systemic corruption” cited by Commissioner Sir Robin Auld involved the sale of Crown land.
Laurence Harris and James Maton of law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge were selected from a number of tenders to head the recovery proceedings. Harris, now of Cooley LLP, is still leading the work on behalf of the AG.
The bulk of the eye-watering amount spent on civil recovery came before Braithwaite-Knowles’ tenure as AG began in March 2014.
Indeed, she has been responsible for stemming much of the expenditure in keeping with her promise to the territory eight years ago. The $700,000 budgeted annually in recent years is a fraction of the several million dollars a year the process was initially costing the country.
That said, a bone of contention among some will be the longevity of the work.
It is now more than nine years since Harris told the UK government that many of the cases would be completed by summer 2013, with a smaller number due to continue into 2014 along with appeals on some of the completed cases.
In July 2018, the Weekly News reported that orders for payments or settlements totalling $28.5 million had been made. That means just $1.1 million has been claimed since then; the overall amount now tots up to $29.6 million, accounting for the circa $7 million to come.
The $1.1 million is dwarfed by the $2.8 million budgeted since 2018 to retrieve it. However, another 1,000 acres of Crown land has also been recouped over that period.
A cynic might assert it’s not in lawyers’ interests to act with haste, given the ostensible financial rewards they can reap – a suggestion put to Braithwaite-Knowles.
“I don’t think any law firm is in business not to make money,” she told the Weekly News.
“But it’s important to note that most of what’s been paid out in legal fees was earlier in the programme. It’s natural that at the beginning of the work that much money would be spent.
“It’s winding down now so the amount being spent is much less.
“I have worked really hard to ensure a balance is struck whereby the matter is dealt with while keeping the public purse in mind,” she added.
One aspect hindering progress is the court system’s current hefty workload.
While “people are working flat out”, the limited availability of judges means court listing dates are elusive.
Efforts are underway to hire a new judge to focus purely on civil matters.
“It takes around three months for a new judge to settle in, so the civil recovery process risks running into the new financial year in April,” the AG warned.
“We were hoping to have finished last year. Some of the matters we had hoped to close are still in the appeals process.
“Even with the best will in the world we may not wrap things up this year,” she said.
One of the key outstanding cases involves land allegedly flipped at North West Point in violation of the Islands’ Crown land policy and which implicated a number of former government ministers.
While Braithwaite-Knowles accepts civil recovery has been “an expensive programme”, she added: “This was not something that could be done in-house; we had to have a specialist team.”
Harris told the Weekly News that the last few cases are now all before the court, with the timetable for completing them dependent on the availability of court time.
“All possible steps have been taken to move cases along quickly. However, the speed at which cases progress is not in the government’s or our hands,” he explained. “Court time and the co-operation of the other parties and their lawyers is also needed.”
Harris was also asked for clarification on how legal fees for carrying out the work are calculated.
He said it was important to consider two things when scrutinising the $22.8 million bill.
“First, this covers all costs – not just Cooley fees, but specialist barristers retained, expert fees where experts have been necessary for particular cases, travel to the Islands where needed, and accommodation,” he said.
“Secondly, this is an average figure; as you would expect, the costs were higher in the earlier years of the programme when there were more cases. Total costs have been running at well under $1 million per year for the last few years,” Harris added.
Even after the current proceedings emanating from the Michael Misick-era conclude, the AG is quick to point out that civil recovery work will not dissipate.
As a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force – a money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog – TCI has certain obligations.
“One of the things the task force requires is that persons who commit crime are denied the enjoyment of the proceeds of their crime,” Braithwaite-Knowles explained.
“Once this programme closes, general civil recovery work will continue, carried out by the offices of the AG and the Director of Public Prosecutions.”
She continued: “Many people in TCI have understood civil recovery only as something flowing from the commission of inquiry; some had never even heard of it before.
“People need to view it now as normal work we do on behalf of the government. It’s an important message because some believe it’s targeted for political reasons – and obviously it is not,” she added. ~ Turks and Caicos Weekly News ~
