Tonight, the chairman of the UDP and former Attorney General Mike Peyreffite is maintaining that he had no knowledge of or anything to do with the signing of the definitive agreement by his former Cabinet colleague Erwin Contreras.
Peyrefitte said this at a UDP press conference today after we yesterday revealed the very first pronouncements from Contreras on the debacle over the DA. 7News obtained a copy of a legal defence he has submitted in response to a lawsuit from the Ashcroft Alliance. That defence says, quote, "the GoB was in negotiations with the then Attorney General and the principals of Port of Magical Belize which, as far as the Defendant was aware, resulted in multiple drafts being exchanged."
So there it is, he says that Peyrefitte was in fact a lead negotiator of the D-A. Here's what he said in response today:
Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"He said he was aware that there were some negotiations going on between the government, myself and Portico concerning this definitive agreement. Well maybe that's what he feels he had to say, or maybe somebody told him to say that, but I can tell you, that is categorically not true. He could not have known about any negotiation between the government, myself and Portico because there were no negotiations happening. I repeat, I got a call with a request that there was a definitive agreement out there that Portico wanted me to sign. I said, "Absolutely not, I'm not signing any definitive agreement because we are not there yet. Cabinet hasn't even considered that yet and I can only sign after Cabinet instructs me to do so." I also said, do not send any document to me, do not send anything to me. Send it to the then chairperson of the investment committee which Portico obviously did, and that was the one that the prime minister read in the National Assembly and tried to pretend like it was sent to me when in fact it was sent to the honorable Tracy Panton which was not saying that the Honorable Panton did anything wrong. When you are in government, a lot of things get sent to you."
"I repeat this position, I was aware that there was a definitive agreement going around because they wanted me to sign one. I said, I will not sign that. I did not become aware that it was signed and signed by one of our ministers at the time until earlier in this year when everybody found that out. I was the one who wrote to the prime minister in the first place to say, "Prime Minister, I am being informed that there is a signed definitive agreement going around and I want to see it." But it was leaked by those who felt that it needed to come out."
"So what he said in his defense is totally untrue. There were never negotiations going on. But then you could say this to yourself. Let's take it at its maximum. Let's just say there were negotiations going on between the government and Portico. Let's just say that. And I'm not saying that that was what was happening. But let's just say that that was what was happening. Why would you sign in the middle of negotiations? Why don't you wait for the negotiations to be over before you sign?"
"So to me, it's inconsistent with what he's saying, but that's my response to that."
