Samuda:US mum on Manatt
Published:Monday | May 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
The tempo of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips controversy - in which the United States law firm was asked to help resolve an extradition matter between Jamaica and the US - is set to increase this week, even as the Government maintains it has not received any official statement from the Obama administration.
Industry, Investment and Com-merce Minister Karl Samuda, the Golding administration's point man on the matter, told The Gleaner yesterday that as far as he knew, no word had been forthcoming from US authorities.
"No one (out of the US) has come to me, either in my capacity as a senior minister of government or as general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party ... . No one has held any conversation with me on the matter," he told The Gleaner.
Samuda's comments come in the aftermath of a report in the US-based Am Law Daily more than a week ago that Manatt, Phelps & Phillips insisted it had been involved in talks with government representatives, not merely members of the ruling Labour administration here.
Samuda was given the task to look into the issue locally by Prime Minister Bruce Golding following a heated public exchange between senior party members, Brady - an attorney-at-law - and Daryl Vaz, the information minister.
The JLP general secretary subsequently dispatched a statement to the media saying Harold Brady had engaged Manatt, Phelps & Phillips after the attorney was asked by members of the JLP to do so.
Golding, baugh to speak
Samuda told The Gleaner yesterday that Golding and Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Ken Baugh are expected to speak on the issue tomorrow in Parliament.
Samuda was adamant that it was Brady's firm which retained the services of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips about October 2009 to pursue discussions with relevant officials of the Government.
"I am advised that all payment arrangements to Manatt, Phelps & Phillips were transacted between the two firms. The Government of Jamaica had nothing to do with any aspect of these arrangements," Samuda said.
In the meantime, Dr Peter Phillips, chairman of the People's National Party's Communications Commis-sion, yesterday told The Gleaner he expects the Government to explain why Samuda and Information Minister Daryl Vaz apparently sought to cover up the issue initially.
"In light of Mr Samuda's account, the Opposition anticipates a full account that will enable Jamaicans to judge whether the Government acted appropriately," Phillips said. "The Parliament and the country need to know why the Government has not been more forthright on the matter."