Bridgetown.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Tade, Senator Maxine McClean, has expressed concerns about sections of the judicial manager's report on CLICO International Life being printed in the media before neither the Government or the Cabinet receiving copies of it.
Speaking in the Senate during her wrap up to the Appropriation Bill last night, McClean read from the Official Secrets Act 1920, Section 2A to prove that people had no right to retain any document prejudicial to the safety of the state when it was contrary to their duty to retain it, and that if people communicated any secret official code, word or password, they shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.
On March 10, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart told journalists at the Grantley Adams International Airport on his return from the 23rd Inter Sessional Meeting of the CARICOM of the Heads of Government in Suriname, that he had not seen the report and could not comment on it.
Stuart reiterated his position in the House of Assembly, his statement created controversy with members of the press, the public and Barbados Labour Party asking why the Prime Minister had not seen the report despite sections of it being printed in the press.
McClean, the Leader of Government Business in the Senate, said the leaking of any file or document spoke to professionalism, as well as to the question of values and secrecy.
"People will tell all is fair in love and war, and politics is war but we have to set limits", McClean told the Senate.
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