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And while Peyrefitte slams the PUP for not delivering the documents - the UDP turned stonewalling into a science yesterday. Former Prime Minister Dean Barrow appeared as attorney for two witnesses yesterday and basically told them not to cooperate with the committee's questions about certain pre-election land transactions for properties adjacent to the Portico project.
So how can Peyreffite criticize the PUP for a lack of transparency when the UDP is no better? Easy!:
Mike Peyreffite, UDP Chairman
"Well. It's very simple. They were properly with the order. This is not about lands. This is not acquisition of lands. This is about filling the gaps as to what led to the signing of the agreement and filling in the gaps to what led to it being tabled by the current government in Cabinet."
Reporter:
"Perhaps just by simple rational deduction, it can be determined that these lands were sold. These lands are located in an area near or around the proposed project site."
Mike Peyreffite, UDP Chairman
"Perhaps by simple deduction? Breds, that's not how we operate at the National Assembly level. When you take a motion to have a Senate Select Committee do something, you must be very specific with what you're looking for. You must be very specific about what your purview is, and you must stick to your terms of reference."
"And the committee yesterday, in my view, was trying to go outside of its terms of reference."
"Mr. Barrow was probably in telling Senator Cal: It is a shame that he would not adjust the terms of reference to indicate where you want to go with your investigation."
Jules Vasquez:
"You can't have it both ways. You cannot be criticizing the PUP for a lack of transparency when all the UDP personalities involved in the land transaction or adjacent to the land transaction have been willfully obfuscatory. And now the former prime minister has appeared to block any ventilation of this Portico adjacent issue, which is the alleged, or the suspicious appearances of certain land transactions which are directly related to Portico."
Mike Peyreffite, UDP Chairman
"That's absolute nonsense, Jules. That noh mek sense. You have a terms of reference if it is so important for the Portico investigation, if it is so critical, so central, so, such a thing that it cannot exist without it, then, well put it in your terms of reference."
Reporter:
"There were 17 transactions which were transfers which were approved on a single day, November 4th, right before the election for large tracts of land. We know that David Morales, his entire clique or his friends and associates, though I didn't see you there. His friends and associates were listed among those 17 persons. And we see large movements of land valued extremely low, all approved by the then Minister of Natural Resources, Hugo Patt. Would you say that on the face of it, outside of the consideration of the Senate Commission of Inquiry, these are suspicious or transactions that may raise an eyebrow?"
Mike Peyreffite, UDP Chairman
"Not necessarily. I mean, you're saying as far as David is concerned?"
Reporter:
"I'm saying, yes, the entire raft of transactions, of 17 transactions would you on the face of it say that those are something that may merit some looking at in some context."
Mike Peyreffite, UDP Chairman
"The responsibility lies on the government or the public official, because you and I can do whatever we want to do. The government still has to approve it."
"Right, In a case like that, you would then have to question the minister or those who approved it. Yes, but that's not for this terms of reference for Portico. That's a separate thing altogether."
Reporter:
"I'm saying that either you are a fighter for the right or you are going to stand on ceremony and semantics and seh that, it's not there, it's not here. My brother. Land is an essential part of the entire political project, the acquisition of land. And what will happen to that land? Will they use the seabed, etc.. It's intrinsic and inextricable from the deliberation of the entire project. Would you agree at least that these, in that light, these land transactions merit some type of review?"
Mike Peyreffite, UDP Chairman
"That's debatable. You can determine that if you want. But to the people who sponsored this motion, if it is so central, maybe they should have hired you as an adviser to them. If it is so central to this particular investigation, if it is so critical, as you put it, why not include it in the terms of reference? Why not put it in there?"
"Now, we are at the stage now, where you need to call the Prime Minister and the Minister of Tourism who sponsored the motion to have that definitive agreement approved by Cabinet. Call them now. But they have told them flat out no, we are not going in front of you And we don't respect you. And we don't have any regard for you. So how can we buy time? Elections are coming up March 6th. Let's see if we can bloody the UDP a little bit before March sixth. No man. Absolutely not."
