With respect to this
negotiated contract, we have learned that a letter of award…. Well, first of all, when I asked the Minister of Education, he said the contract had been awarded. Then we found out that the contract had been awarded but it was just a letter of intent and that the actual contract had yet to be signed. I said: is it legally binding? They said: no; in fact we have secured a legal opinion to the contrary — that, in fact, the letter to Dowland Contracting is a legally binding document.
I would like to know on whose authority the deputy minister of Public Works was acting under in order to enter into that letter of intent to Dowland
Contracting. Was it the Minister of Finance? Was it the Premier? Whose authority was he acting on?