Former U.D.P. A.G. says Erwin Contreras Had No Legal Authority to Sign Definitive Agreement

Erwin Contreras

According to former Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte, the previous Minister of Economic Development had no legal authority to sign a Definitive Agreement with Portico Enterprise Limited. Peyrefitte says that the concessions and obligation outlined in the agreement cannot be agreed to by one single minister. He also stressed that the document was never presented to Cabinet before the 2020 General Elections.

Michael Peyrefitte

Michael Peyrefitte, Former U.D.P. Attorney General

“Erwin Contreras had no authority to sign that document. The concession and giveaways in that document he was not authorized to do. Not even the minister of finance is authorized to do some of the things  document purports to do, like the waving of stamp duty for land transfers, environmental tax, nobody, no single minister can do that. That requires the act of parliament. So that in itself shows you that he had no authority to do it. Erwin Contreras is my former colleague, my fellow U.D.P. person, but I don’t endorse that. The U.D.P. does not endorse that, and we distance ourselves from that. It was wrong then, and if the P.U.P. are trying to incorporate that now, they are wrong now.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Have you spoken to Mr. Contreras, you know, to ask him what were you thinking?”

Michael Peyrefitte
“I’ve tried to, but he has not responded to me. No definitive agreement came to the subcommittee or we would have rejected even looking at it because where’s your environmental compliance. It did not come to the investment subcommittee. It did not go to the overall cabinet and nobody in the cabinet. I’ve been lobbying all the former members of cabinet as much as I can reach since yesterday that we know that this document is a reality and none of them. None of them say that they were aware of this document. It’s not nobody authorized anybody to sign this document. It never came to the committee. It never came to cabinet. This was done solely by Erwin Contreras. As to why, I would love to know why.”