THE ongoing staffing crisis within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) has become a serious obstacle to the proper administration of criminal justice in Trinidad and Tobago.

And it can no longer be treated as a temporary inconvenience or administrative issue, attorney Saira Lakhan said in an interview with the Express on Saturday. While she is president of the Assembly of Southern Lawyers (ASL), Lakhan said she was giving her personal views on the issue.

The ODPP is facing such severe staff shortages that it cannot assign prosecutors to new criminal courts, DPP Roger Gaspard stated in a letter dated April 30 to acting Registrar of the Supreme Court Kimberly Prescott.