Former AG Peyrefitte Says Caution Needed Before Accusations Made under Whistleblower Act

Michael Peyrefitte

Former Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte was also asked to weigh in on the whistleblower’s legislation.  And he says that while it hasn’t been fully ventilated in the public and his party hasn’t discussed it, he has some preliminary personal concerns with the bill.  Peyrefitte says that while he believes it could lead to malicious acts to tarnish a person’s reputation, he hopes that the bill would contain measures whereby mischief-makers are held accountable.

Michael Peyrefitte, Former Attorney General

“We have a U.D.P. group of people who liaise with the unions on matters like these and we haven’t gotten back from them specifically what they would like to see in the bill. We have our views but we haven’t finalized our views in the party as yet so I don’t want to preempt us by discussing what our personal views are on this. We are still waiting for the unions to discuss it before it comes up in the House. I think there is a House Meeting on July second but we don’t know. In principle and concept, I always say if you are not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to fear. If you are doing what you are supposed to be doing within the public service regulations then you can whistle blow on me all you want because you won’t find anything. My only concern in terms of making it wide, to be honest with you, is that we have to be very careful as to how we accuse people of things. I think it has become far too easy for a fool with a computer and fake profile can go up and say something about people and for some reason the rest of the population take it for gospel. I think that while you cannot punish people who whistle blow or point out wrongdoings of other people, I think that people should be punished if they just tarnish other people’s name with no evidence.”