This my Freedom of Information application made on 22nd December 2010  to the Minister of Finance for the ‘Duprey’ letter of 13th January 2009 and the 31st December 2008 accounts of the CL Financial Group.

Readers who are not familiar with the ‘Duprey’ letter and its implications, should read – ‘Finding the Assets.’

This is the third application I am making for these documents. The first was to the previous Minister of Finance, Karen Nunez-Tesheira, who delayed a long time, then ended-up telling me to go to the Central Bank, since they were the original addressees. Of course that was a transparent ploy to frustrate my application, as we know that the Central Bank is immune from the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA).

My next application was on 28th June 2010 to the present Minister of Finance, Winston Dookeran, who never acknowledged the application, despite several reminders.

Readers, please remember that the FoIA requires that the public authority reply to applications in 30 days. There are no penalties for breaching that requirement, so we have to contend with these tactics.

It is now occurring to me, as I write this, on Thursday 20th January 2011, that by Monday 24th we will have reached yet another deadline, but this time we will go further than just letter-writing.

When you combine the failure to reply by both PNM and PP Ministers of Finance with the bizarre affidavited evidence of our Inspector of Financial Institutions, Carl Hiralal on the background to the Central Bank’s application to wind-up CLICO Investment Bank, it is clear to me that the decision has been taken to suppress that letter. For whatever reason, as we say in these parts.