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A social media spat has broken out between two of the politicians responsible for States members' conduct.
The row between Deputy Sam Mezec and Senator Philip Ozouf is over who leaked information to the press about the flight costs of two top civil servants who attended a mining conference in South Africa. Wayne Gallichan and Mike King’s fully flexible business class flights cost more than £12,000. An inquiry later cleared the men of any wrong doing.
It’s been rumoured that Senator Philip Ozouf was the source of the leak. He’s repeatedly denied it - but not to Deputy Mezec's satisfaction.
In a tweet Deputy Sam Mezec challenges Senator Ozouf on the issue. His tweet reads – “Philip, did you leak the info about South Africa flights cost to the media? Put us out of our misery. Yes or no. No ambiguity.”
He says he had no reply, so he re-tweeted the challenge, this time adding: “No response from @philipozouf, come on Philip. It’s a simple question. Yes or no. Your silence speaks volumes.”
That did prompt a swift response. Senator Ozouf blocked Deputy Mezec from following him on Twitter, so that he now just gets the message: “You are blocked from following @philipozouf and viewing @philipozouf’s Tweets.”
Last week a freedom of information request made public all the emails between Mr King and Mr Gallichan, and between Mr King and Senator Lyndon Farnham, between Monday 1st February and Friday 11th March 2016, but the source of the leak was only vaguely referred to.
In one email, Mr King writes, “...there is only one person feeding this story...”, but nothing else. Senator Ozouf is on the record as saying he’d checked with the Chief Officer [Mike King] “...who has explained that his reference does not relate to me or any other politician.” But, the public are still none the wiser as to whom it does refer to.
Both Deputy Sam Mezec and Senator Philip Ozouf sit on the Privileges and Procedures Committee, which in its own words “...is responsible for the procedures of the States Assembly, for members’ facilities and the code of conduct for members.”
If there were to be an investigation as to whether any States member was the source of the leak about the cost of the flights, and if any rules had been broken, it would probably be this committee that would do the job.
Bailiwick Express emailed Senator Ozouf to comment, but so far has not received a reply.
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