U.D.P. Says Consultation Not Adequate for Court of Appeal Appointments
Michael Peyrefitte
Last week we reported on the appointment of three new Justices for the Court of Appeal. But tonight, the Opposition is challenging the way the government went about making these appointments. Today, Chairman of the U.D.P., Senator Michael Peyrefitte spoke with the press via zoom to say that the formal process of “consultation” was not carried out. Peyrefitte says he didn’t even know the swearing in was happening until he saw it on the news.
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
“I found it very strange because usually the Leader of the Opposition would bring these matters to the party leadership whenever we are talking about appointing people to the advisory council; the court of appeal and the like – that haven’t come. I then called Honorable Shyne Barrow who is the current Leader of the Opposition and past Leader of the Opposition Patrick Faber and they both indicated to me that the usual consultation process didn’t take place in this instance that they know. They would know that they would get a call from the Cabinet Secretary and he would inform them that an email was sent to them and they would appreciate our responses to it very quickly and they would be asked on the phone whether or not we would have any objection. If it is a small issue, then there is no objection but on a matter such as the appointment of the court appeal justices, matters like that usually there would be a call. But when I spoke to them they said they received no such call from the Cab Sec’s office; no hard cover letter and they would check again to see whether or not they received any emails of any kind. So, as it turns out an email was sent to Honorable Patrick Faber on June twenty-first. It went to his junk-mail and that email contained a letter that was signed on June seventh – so two weeks after a letter is signed by the Cab Sec, the office of the Prime Minister, it is emailed to the Leader of the Opposition at the time Patrick Faber and no follow up phone call; no alert; no hard copy was sent, at least we haven’t received any. And on that basis three Justices of Appeal were appointed to the court. One can say well at least we can’t say they didn’t send us an email, however, I don’t think that at least doing an alert or not hearing from us they would at least call to see if there would be a response which is usually the case – that not having happened then we think that the consultation process, to put it mildly, was very weak at best.”
Peyrefitte says that the routine should be for the Opposition to receive copies of CVs, but those weren’t included this time around on that single email that was sent.
