Senator Le Sueur promised the States he would share further ‘due diligence’ reports on Harcourt with the States before the final agreement for them to begin work was signed.
The Senator – who was fielding questions in the absence of Chief Minister Frank Walker, who is on holiday in Bermuda – maintained that he had confidence in WEB and that the confidential background reports issued after the vote had been taken had been positive.
And he said that Senator Walker had only seen the reports at the same time as the rest of States Members after Thursday’s debate approving the financial side of the Waterfront deal.
‘WEB has agreed they will undertake another due diligence report, which will be shared with the Chief Minister and the Treasury Minister,’ he said.
‘We will provide it to all States Members before any legally binding development agreement is signed.
‘That will allow all of us to be satisfied and to ensure the public interest is properly safeguarded.’
Using the procedural device of emergency questions, Deputy Geoff Southern asked who knew about what, and when.
He focused on when Chief Minister Frank Walker and others knew about the Las Vegas lawsuit against developers Harcourt, and the reports that struck a cautious tone about their financial capacity.
And other Members also posed questions – St Peter Constable Tom du Feu said that the Council of Ministers had ‘badly let down’ the States, and asked why they had only found out so much about Harcourt after the vote was taken.
When asked by Deputy Alan Breckon whether ministers would reveal all their e-mail correspondence over the Waterfront, Senator Le Sueur refused, saying that not all the communication had been by e-mail.
