Opposition Leader Marlon Penn says he is firmly against the decision of the government to cover Speaker of the House of Assembly Julian Willock’s legal bill.
Penn during an interview with 284News on Friday said he believes it is not the government’s rightful responsibility and warned that this process could potentially be illegal.
He said during a previously commissioned meeting, the subject of Willock’s legal bill was brought to the forefront and a vote was held on whether the government should cover the fees.
The Opposition legislator said he and his other colleague Second District Representative Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull were the only two persons to vote against bringing the motion to the House.
When asked whether other members of the Opposition were present during that meeting, he said he could not recall if all members were present, but was sure that he and Turnbull were the only two persons who voted against the decision.
He said, “My position then and my position is still now that I don’t believe it is the government’s responsibility. I don’t think that in times where we’re going through such difficulty in terms of the finances of the territory, to be back and forth with these issues of continuously expending the public for unbudgeted expenses like this. We’re spending $5 million on the government’s lawyers for the COI. We’re talking about another $120,000 plus, because it’s going to be more than that when it’s all said and done and when this process is wrapped up.”
“We’ve already paid a tremendous amount of money in legal fees, unbudgeted money, when all the other resources that we need to get things going for – our schools, for our seniors, for our road infrastructure, for our tourism infrastructure – we continue to hear that there is no money, but we could find unbudgeted money… we have to do better,” he added.
Legality of this process being investigated
Penn said this stance being taken by the government is in alignment with the many questionable decisions that have been made since they came into office.
He said that for a government to go against a Supreme High Court ruling and take funds from the Consolidated Fund to settle the Speakers debt even after Willock as a private citizen was ordered by the court to pay the legal fees, directly contradicts good governance.
He said he is looking into the legality of this decision by the government as he believes it may not be legal.
“Again, this is consistent within government’s behaviour. They say one thing and they do another totally different thing. They continue to contradict themselves in everything they say and do and the reality is that I have to and I’m now getting persons to look at this matter to see if it’s even legal. The approach that is being taken after the courts have ruled on what needs to be done, that we could now go as a House of Assembly, authorize the Premier and the Speaker to dip into the Consolidated funds to pay these fees when there was a court ruling on this matter,” he stated.
“It is something that we have to look at and we have to look at it closely. We continue to talk about accountability, transparency and good governance. We have to ensure that these things are done above board and we do not continue changing the rules to suit whatever needs we have at the time. This kind behaviour has to stop and this is the type of behaviour that has us in the position that we are right now with the level of scrutiny that is under everything that we do,” Penn further expressed.
The motion to exempt Willock from paying the more than $120,000 legal bill is the next item on the Order Paper of the House of Assembly.
The House of Assembly proceedings are scheduled to resume on Monday November 1.