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House Speaker Takes Auditor General To Court
posted (October 31, 2016)
At the beginning of September, we told you about the lawsuit which House Speaker Mike Peyrefitte brought against Auditor General Dorothy Bradley. As you might remember, she erroneously named him, in those now famous reports, as someone who was not authorized to recommend persons for passports.

He warned that if she did not apologize in writing, and amend her reports, he would take her to court. She didn't do either, and so, he filed a claim against her. That case had it's first management conference today before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, and this afternoon, he granted us an interview saying that all this could be avoided if the Auditor General would just correct the mistake:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"We feel that it's a simple matter of law that can be settled very easily. So the Chief Justice stood the matter down for about half an hour to an hour and lawyers and the parties had a discussion, as a very fruitful discussion and I am confident that at the end of the day the Chief Justice would not have to make any pronouncements on the merits of the case. I don't want to get into the discussions that we had, because I don't want to prejudice the discussions, but it was a very good one and we expect that there won't be any need for the Chief Justice to decide on anything. At least that's my hope and expectations."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"For that to happen, that there would be no need for the courts to intervene, it would mean that the other side be effectively conceding something, that you want Dorothy Bradley that she should not have printed your name in her audit reports."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"You want me to say exactly what I shouldn't say, so I can't say. But essentially just to answer the last part of your question, I wrote Mrs. Bradley right after the report came out and all I ask her to do was to correct that error that I believe is an error. It has affected a number of people and of course affected me personally. Let's just say had she responded then and took steps to correct the error, I would have never gone to court. But I think I had to go to court, because I had to protect my reputation. But along the lines of what will have to happen if we have a settlement I can't blame you for asking the question, but I don't want to prejudice the discussions as they take place."

"Initially when Mrs. Bradley was served, I was informed by Mr. Dickie Bradley that he would be the one handling the case. He and I had very fruitful discussions and it was my hope and expectations that today would not even have been necessary. But that didn't panned out to anything. So we have to proceed as if though the court has to decide, because we didn't come to any arrangement before today."

The Senate Committee Hearings will start next week Wednesday. The members of the committee will start to drill down in her reports and she is scheduled as the first person to be called to give evidence. One concern is that his lawsuit could end up blocking the hearings, frustrating it even before it starts. We asked him about that today, and he says that stopping this public inquiry is not his purpose:

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"The interpretation is that your case is some form of attempt to frustrate that process."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"The auditor general chosen to correct the mistake. When I first wrote to her, we would not even be in court right now and I would not be asking for the declarations that I'm asking for. What you have to understand is it may seem like a simple thing but it is not a simple thing. If I have signed as a recommender and I have, for about 50-100 people from my memory, people who I've known all my life and they wanted to get their passport because I was easier to find than another member of parliament. Those people are legitimately asking me 'Mike is my passport valid? Will my visa be cancelled?'. They are asking me these questions because the auditor general said it in a report that I did not have the authority to sign the document that lead them to their passport being issued. So it is not a simple or frivolous matter, like I said, I don't see the difficulty in just dealing with that, correct that and then you move on with the rest of the report, that's how I see it initially. In terms of trying to shut down the entire inquiry, that's not my desire at all, I can tell you from the discussions that we've had today that the inquiry will happen on November 9th and it will be proceeded upon merely. There is no intention to shut down the inquiry, however, they say let justice be done, only heavens may fall. So if it has to stop for me to clear my name then I have no difficulty asking for it to be stopped. I'm hoping that I don't have to ask for that."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Have there been any person who have questioned your integrity apart from those who are concerned that their passports will most likely be put in that category of invalid?"

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"But of course because then when people see your name in there, it's like we live in a country where for better or for worse, we like sensationalism. Some people would hear that your name is in the auditor general's report and they just run wild with it. They automatically assumed that you were selling a passport or a strange person told me the other day, 'well your name was in the auditor general's report, you are selling passports too'. So then even though the auditor general is not even accusing me of that, the mere fact that your name is in there, it tarnishes your name. Especially when she puts something in there that was clearly an error or a mistake in law, I have to take whatever steps I need to take to correct that."

Critics argue that as Speaker of The House, Peyrefitte is the one who laid the Auditor General's reports on the table and caused them to be published.

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