PM on Bevans Ruling: I Stand by My Position
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals ruled in favour of former Tourism Director, Karen Bevans and against Prime Minister John Briceño and Love FM. The court upheld a previous decision handed down in August by the Supreme Court: that Bevans is due a total of ninety thousand dollars from the media house and Briceño in aggravated and compensatory damages. While PM Briceño refrained from speaking on the ruling, he said that he stands by his position on the matter. And while he has to respect the law, Briceño did say that perhaps the government needs to take a more serious look at the matter from a governance standpoint, which is to look at the legislation that allows for contracts to be awarded close to election time.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“I do have my opinion on that matter and it has not changed and it will not changed, but what I have done – I’ll be meeting with the attorney. We have not discussed it as yet and if there’s room for an appeal then we will appeal it. But if the attorney would advise it’s best if we just settle, then that’s the law. We will follow the law. When you give contracts so close to the elections to people that the government favours – once that happens it gives credence to what I said before. So probably it’s something that needs to be looked at seriously to avoid to those kinds of things, but I think it’s something for us to be able to discuss later.”