Chairman of the UDP Michael Peyrefitte has penned another Freedom of Information request, this one to the Prime Minister.
He's requesting disclosure of the names of all those ministers who have written to the Governor General who have requested permission for their businesses to enter into contracts or agreements with the government.
The request comes after the Prime Minister said last week that Senators Eamon Courtenay and Chris Coye had written for such permission. Now, Peyrefitte is asking who else has written:
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, UDP Senator
"The constitution says that if 2 sitting ministers want to have their firm, engage the government for contracts for services, the governor general would have to give a special permission for that or they will have to vacate their seats as senators and so the UDP wants to know if this has been done. If they receive such permission, just provide it and then you will say yes, you have received the permission. You submit to us how much they'd been paid and then the public will make a judgement on that. The people have to know what their leaders are doing. The people have a right to know that there may be conflicts of interest in the operations of government based on ministers directly benefitting from the public's purse. I don't think that is personal. I don't think that should be secret information."
"The opposition use to rail hell about even the mere appearances of conflicts and so all we are trying to find out is whether or not you are hypocrites, which we think we know the answer to that and we are hearing that it's not just limited to Courtenay Coye LLP. There may be other ministers who are engaged or are partners or shareholders in other companies that have business with the government, so we want to find out who those other ministers are."
