BTL's Communication Workers Union has just over two weeks, until Monday, June 6th to come up with the roughly US$40 million to buy government's 37% shareholding in BTL. Government has imposed that deadline because it has major debt servicing obligations to meet in June and desperately needs hard currency to finance debt payments. Those payments were originally reported as $61 million but may be as high as $84 million.
And while GOB is desperate and has imposed a deadline, the BTL Communication Workers' Union is not impressed. It has gone on the public relations offensive to say basically that the deadline is a red herring. Now the union says it wants government to bend as far over backwards for it as it did for Jeffrey Prosser. As we discussed with the suddenly omnipresent Minister of Information Godfrey Smith today, that's pretty far, and too far for an already over-extended government.
Godfrey Smith, Minister of Information
"Quite frankly Jules my hope is that the BTL workers will get together with management, with their own management, and open the thing up to some other Belizeans. If they can't muster the financial capital to buy the entire 37.5%, as we've discussed in a number of meetings we've had with them, open the thing up man and bring in some other people; bring in credit unions, bring in cooperatives, bring in cane farmers or something. We have to try and break the back of the thing somehow or the other."
Jules Vasquez,
Isn't the problem fundamentally that while you all are saying, 'find the money for 37.5% and we'll sell you', isn't the problem really that you all are unable to give them any directors to support that? You all only control one director and because the government apparently illegally, by pronouncement of the Belize Supreme Court, transferred the Special Share to a non-government agent, being Jeff Prosser, that because he has that, those two directors, you all are unable to offer what you should which is two directors?
Godfrey Smith,
"I don't think the first issue is the issue of directors. I think the first issue is the issue of money and I don't think we can be accused of not doing anything. We in one of the meetings we had said we are willing to guarantee up to $10 million or we are going to try, even though its going to put a lot of pressure on us, to come up with the cash injection of $10 million, maybe 5 from GOB and 5 from somewhere else to get the thing moving. But not even that was bitten on. Really, legally, GOB is entitled to the Special Share. Its just a matter of it winding through the legal processes first to end up back with it but I think legally we are on common ground."
Jules Vasquez,
So you are confident you will get it back?
Godfrey Smith,
"We will get it back but we can't necessarily tie up all the issues at the same time. We have to have a document that will nail down one or two things and then we work towards it but stepping away from the table, returning two weeks later, jumping on the radio and propagandizing the issue isn't the way to settle a business transaction."
Jules Vasquez,
So is the BCWU, to your mind, acting not in good faith or is acting in a way that is detrimental to the process of negotiation?
Godfrey Smith,
"I'll stay away from good faith/bad faith and just say this is a business transaction, obviously, and from a business perspective I don't think we're going about it the right way."
Jules Vasquez,
How do you respond to the argument that in fact you all had pressing obligations to meet on November 1st of 2004 and in fact you all bent over backwards, raided a sinking fund in order to meet Jeff Prosser's obligations, and now you all are telling them you can't wait on them, you don't know have any more options, when you bent over backwards so many times and engaged in so many non-prudent business maneuvers to facilitate Jeff Prosser but yet you will not negotiate with them in a none prudential way, you will not extend any thing for them beyond June 5th.
Godfrey Smith,
"Maybe the honest answer to that Jules is that we expended too much of our stock on Jeff Prosser and obviously he didn't turn out to be what at first he appeared to be. He didn't have the wherewithal and perhaps the best way of answering that is that we expended good stock on him which put us in a position where our options of offering things to the BTL workers are severely limited and it's the reality."
Jules Vasquez,
But isn't it indicative of the manner of this Musa administration, that in fact it bends over backwards for those who are unworthy, and those who are worthy, those Belizean interests, it has nothing to offer? So it acts in a way which disserves the interests of the people of Belize and serves the interest of gloating American investors.
Godfrey Smith,
"Well I've already answered that by saying we expended, we wasted good stock, good energy and resources on the ICC deal. Obviously it didn't work and we're now with a few options in terms of resolving this issue."
Jules Vasquez,
Isn't the point at which you're at, which is that you all are in a fiscal emergency for the month of June, isn't the issue here that in fact the government has acted, at every turn, in an irresponsible manner and has failed to act prudently and now because it raided the sinking fund, because of so many other bad maneuvers it made, is in fact completely out of options and isn't this reason enough for the unions to felt that they are unable to negotiate with a government which has so systematically ruined the country's chance to stand on good footing; to say that I have a BB+ rating and I can help you?
Godfrey Smith,
Well I mean you say isn't that reason enough for the workers to say we're not going to negotiate because you've done X, Y, and Z, their objectives is the shares. How else are you going to get the shares except by sitting around the table and negotiating? If you say well you've done a string of bad transactions and say we won't negotiate with you, that's the stuff of politics, not the stuff of two parties sitting around a table trying to strike a deal. You won't strike a deal doing that."
Presently the unions have been unable to come up with financing and government has only agreed to provide a sovereign guarantee for US$10 million of what is anticipated to be a loan in the US$40 million range. Of course, in the present financial climate, a sovereign guarantee from the Government of Belize doesn't amount to much since the country's credit rating was recently downgraded to CCC, basically junk bond or what's called highly speculative status.
