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Well, this morning the Minister called us to set the record straight. He said what Jean Baizar presented to us were not the full facts. He outlined the chain of events and interactions with the Baizar family in an interview conducted via Zoom video conference:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Minister of National Security
"Jules, I'm not going to get into an argument with a grieving parent. However I was very very disappointed with what Ms Baizer said, because and not giving the full facts to the media."

"On March 17th we represented to cabinet the need to give some sort of ex gratia payment to these soldiers. The cabinet decided that each soldier would receive a hundred thousand dollars, plus they would be treated as if though they had retired which was an additional benefit on top of the hundred thousand dollars. On March 18th, I, along with the military brass met with the four families and their lawyers and I explained to them what Cabinet had decided."

"We were informed that none of the soldiers had wills, so each of them would have to get letters of administration and an administrator appointed for the purpose of distributing to the beneficiaries the value of the estate."

"To this date the ministry has received no indication of anybody receiving letters of administration for any of the estates, so how can we distribute monies to an estate when an administrator has not been identified?"

And, in the case of Major Radford Baizar, that grant of administration is complicated - according to Peyrefitte - because of the deceased soldier's complicated domestic situation. Peyrefitte explained that makes it impossible for Government to just make the payout:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Minister of National Security
"As is the case with many of us, Mr. Baizar was living with a young lady who was not his wife. Mr. Baizar and his legal wife have been estranged for some time we understand, but the person he was living with, while, yes, she was treated as his so-called common law wife, she had no legal basis to make any claim to the estate other than a partner that she lived with Major Baizar. That situation prompted us to be even more careful."

"Lo and behold, on March 19th, we received a letter from Courtenay, Coye and Company representing Mrs. Jeanine Thompson-Baizar who is the legal wife of Major Baizar."

"So on March 19th, we got a letter from Courtney Coye LLP saying we act on behalf of Jeanine Thompson Baizar, Mrs. Baizar is the widow of the late Major Radford Baizar who passed away. "By virtue of their marriage, our client is entitled to Major Baizar's personal chattels absolutely, along with 1/3 of his residuary estate absolutely. We have been instructed by our client to apply for a grant of administration of Major Baizar's estate and we are in the process of doing so."

"We are aware that Mrs. Audrey Mature Shepherd gave an interview ot Channel 5, wherein she indicated she had been asking for the Baizar family to get an advance on the benefits they're entitled to prior to them obtaining a grant of administration."

"We have been instructed to request that you either refrain for releasing any benefits due to Major Baizar's estate prior to the grant of administration being obtained."

"We decided the best thing to do is to wait for the grant of administration to be issued - that way the Supreme Court would be telling us exactly who to give this money to. That not having happened yet, we are not going to distribute the funds, because we don't want to distribute the funds to the wrong persons."

"So all we're waiting for is for the court to grant the administration, the letters of administration, for Major Baizar and the other 3 soldiers and once that has been done, the monies will be paid."

And while that remains a matter of to be contested in the case of Major Baizar's estate, we pressed Peyrefitte on whether he had spoken too loosely when he said the money had been "given":

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Would you accept however that you may have spoken too loosely or spoke careless when you said on last Wednesday that I think we made very public each family was given a sort of like an exgratia payment of a hundred thousand or something to that effect."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Minister of National Security
"Not at all, because it was given to them by the cabinet and by the ministy of finance. However, how can it be loose?"

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"I'm saying when you give someone something they have to have it. You're talking about they were given an offer?"

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Minister of National Security
"No, they were not given an offer. The money was made available to them. Its not loose because the very next day the money was made available to them. It was all a matter of telling them now you need to go and get your letters of administration and that money will be transferred to whatever account the holder of the letters of administration would provide to us."

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Okay, I think we may have a difference of understanding of the word "give"."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Minister of National Security
"March 17th Cabinet says give this to these families, March 18th., we say the money is available, it's there, it's for you, it has been granted to you. Now just give us your letters of administration and then we transfer it into your accounts."