BELIZE CITY, Tues. Mar. 8, 2022– Last Thursday, Justice Sonya Young issued an oral judgment on the judicial review application brought by Senator Michael Peyefitte against the Government of Belize for the awarding of a Microsoft 365 contract valued at $3.4 million to SMART Belize, which was a late entrant to a selective bidding process, last year. Both parties are claiming that the ruling is a vindication of the position they have taken in regard to the action. While the government has been publicly highlighting the fact that the contract was not canceled by the judge, which GoB considers an act of vindication, Senator Peyrefitte has pointed to the reason for the judge’s unwillingness to cancel the contract—the fact that it would result in additional costs for taxpayers. Also, according to Peyrefitte, the court did acknowledge that the government violated the Finance and Audit Reform Act and thus broke the law.
The UDP thus asserted in a press release that was issued today, March 8, “The truth is that our Claim succeeded. Justice Young in fact upheld our case and granted Judicial Review because she found the contract illegal. Thus, the Claimant was victorious and was awarded costs as the winning party. A further request to terminate the contract because of its illegality was denied because Justice Young exercised her undoubted discretion not to quash. She said that quashing would only bring additional hardship on taxpayers. This was for the reason that the services under the contract, though illegal, had nevertheless already been performed for seven (7) of the twelve (12) months during which the contract was to last. Government would thus not be able to recover the taxpayer monies paid to Smart and Microsoft, and would in fact have to spend more taxpayer monies to enter into and pay for a new, legal contract.”
Peyrefitte himself noted when he spoke to reporters, “From what we could hear, she declared that the Finance and Audit Reform Act was violated, the government did not follow the Finance and Audit Reform Act, and they awarded full cost to us, and she also used the word ‘vindication,’ which means that we may be entitled to vindicatory damages—clearly indicating that what the government did was illegal, but I guess, based on what her decision orally, that it would not make sense in her view for the contract to be terminated at this point.”
The Government Press Office, however, in a press release stated, “Justice Young found that the BZ$3.4-million-dollar contract awarded to SMART for Microsoft 365 licenses for a period of one year was validly and rationally entered into with the government.”
And Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño took to Facebook following the announcement of the judgment and claimed that the ruling was a vindication of his government’s decision.
“The judgement handed down by Justice Sonya Young is vindication that we acted prudently and with rationality,” the Prime Minister remarked on Facebook.
It has been noted, however, that had the judge considered the decision of the government to be fully legal and ethical, the government would not have been ordered to pay Peyrefitte’s legal fees and would not have been given an admonishment by the Supreme Court.
Peyrefitte, after the ruling, explained the nature of that admonishment issued by the court. “The judge even warned the government to say,’you are being watched, you are being monitored, you are being followed as to whether or not you will continue to follow these illegal procedures’, and I think what the judge did was to give a stinging review of the government to say that they violated the law, but at the same time, the judge felt that given where we are and given that the contract is already so far along in her view – in her view it did not make sense for her to declare the contract null and void,” Peyrefitte said.
The press release issued by the United Democratic Party has referred to Government’s portrayal of Justice Young’s ruling as a misrepresentation and further stated that the party “condemns the Briceño administration for lying to the Belizean people about Justice Sonya Young’s ruling on the illegal awarding of a Microsoft contract to the Briceño owned company, SMART.” The party further remarked in its release that,”The shameful victory lap taken by Government after the judgement reeks of the stench left by Said Musa’s “
‘vindication’ comment, which came after the CCJ award to Belize Bank for the unconstitutional and immoral diversion of $20 million to a UHS loan. Such declarations of victory and vindication in relation to clearly wrongful acts demonstrates how dishonest those in power become when a Court, as in this case, does not—for public policy reasons— actually quash a contract even after declaring it illegal.”
What the UDP has emphasized is that, “Justice Young was clear… that the exercise of her discretion not to quash so as to spare taxpayers, should not detract from the gravity of her finding and declaration as to the wrongfulness of the Government’s actions in executing a contract in violation of the protective requirements of the Finance and Audit Reform Act.” It further insisted that the judge’s decision to award Peyrefitte full coverage of his legal costs was “a way of signaling the Court’s disapprobation of the Government’s behavior.”
The attorney for the claimant, Senior Counsel Dean Barrow (former Prime Minister of Belize), in a phone interview with 7News, said that the funds paid out to SMART would be unrecoverable and the cost of a new contract would have had to be shouldered by the taxpayers. This contract is set to end in about 5 months or so, and Peyrefitte has said that they will review the written judgment before making a decision as to whether or not they will appeal the ruling.
“We have to clearly look at her decision. We have to clearly look at her reasons, and we have to decide whether or not we want to accept it or we want to appeal it, bearing fully in mind that the time for the appeal to be heard could very well be the time when the contract ends. All of that we have to analyze. I think it is a split decision, because the government will have to pay some serious cost, the government has been scolded and told that they failed to follow the law, but at the same time the judge also has the responsibility to say while she does declare that the government broke the law, whether or not it makes sense at this point to cancel the entire contract – I would have preferred for the judge to say that given the fact that they broke the law that the contract should be fully canceled, but that’s the decision, and we have to respect her decision,” Peyrefitte said.