The Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Michael Peyrefitte is asking the Supreme Court for Judicial Review against the Minister of Finance, the Financial Secretary and the Attorney General.
It's over the award of a 3.4 million dollar contract to SMART - for that company - owned by the Briceno family to be government's Microsoft provider.
BTL formerly provided the service - but SMART got it this time - government says based on the lowest bid.
But, in his application to the court asking for leave to apply for judicial review - which was filed by his attorney Dean Barrow - Peyrefitte argues that the award of the contract is deeply flawed and illegal since the contract never went to the Contractor General for approval before it was executed.
For all those reasons, Peyrefitte wants to ask the court to force government to set aside what it believes is an unlawful contract award.
We spoke to Peyrefitte today:
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, UDP Senator
"I am asking the court to declare the contract that the government signed with Smart concerning the Microsoft 365 services to be quashed, to be declared null and void, for the mere fact that it is illegal, its irrational and it includes in my view some serious actual bias on behalf of the government."
"Its completely irrational that you would move from BTL to Smart, especially since if the government were to take monies and pay into BTL, they would essentially be supporting and paying a company that they owned 49% of and the people of Belize on a whole owned 90% of. That's like taking money from an entity that you own, that you know has been performing well and putting it into private hands for no real reason other than of we can seg-way into the third limb of that, other than its reasonable to say that there must be some bias and you don't even get the permission of the contractor general - that is something that somebody has to challenge. That's not about politics, that's about breaking the law under the finance and audit reform act."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Ultimately, what would you want to see coming out of this application?"
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, UDP Senator
"I would want to see the court reject that contract, declare it illegal, that the government has entered into with Smart and have the government do the proper thing which is to continue the arrangement that they have with BTL who is a certified silver level partner with Microsoft."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Is this action legitimately in the public interest or is it just a way for your party to strike at the heart of the PUP and try to gain a political victory through the courts, well at the same time causing some embarrassment or discomfort for the prime minister?"
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, UDP Senator
"Jules, we are Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Our job is to bring these things to the people and o0ur job is to keep the government on its toes and to point out when they do things that are wrong. In this case, if you take just the part about you having a contract you want to enter into with an entity, especially as the minister of finance and the prime minister. You want to give a contract to a company for which your family is directly involved - for you to not feel that you need to go to the contractor general. That is not something that frivolous, that is not something that's political."
The application was filed today - and no hearing date has yet been assigned.
