And while Kyron and his mother are continuing that fight, BTL has laid down its sword in the battle to regain the GOB contracts that have moved to Smart - and the company did so before the battle even really began.
While the Belize Communications Workers Union has issued a strongly worded press release condemning the government for the SMART switchover and detailing the damaging effects it will have on the company and the wider public, the chairman has taken a more moderate position.
Though BCWU called out the government and demanded that they end their contracts with Smart and move back to BTL, Mark Lizarraga has accepted the loss and said next time, they just have to try harder.
He showed no signs of indignation about GOB shifting to their competitors who are owned by the prime minister's family - despite the wider public raging at what many feel is an act of nepotism. Rather, the chairman simply gave a resigned statement that the company has not been competitive enough and it is something they will have to fix moving forward.
Mark Lizarraga, Chairman, BTL
"We knew from day one that BTL was heavy, we knew from day one that we had to make some changes to put the company on profitable footing. And we also knew that we had to become nimble, more responsive to our clients needs, we had to become more competitive. And our staff after consultations with the union and the whole staff body understood that. I can understand their passion, obviously, I have a bias now, that's obvious, I would want to see all the business come to us, of course, but I started by saying we are operating in a competitive arena and we have to be prepared even though we are an essential services provider to compete with other providers in the area."
"I think we have to make sure we do everything possible to convince those people who procure on behalf of government- by the way I must say the businessman in me understand what they're going through. They have been asked to operate with a significant cut to their budgets, they've gotten a 20% cut to their budget, the businessperson in me understand they have to cut their expenses as well to survive. As the chairman I would love for all their business to come to BTL, but I think that we cannot expect to be entitled to it, I think we have to fight for it, I think we have to earn their business."
"I don't know if I can say if the Prime Minister is biased towards, Smart, I won't agree with you there and I don't even know if the Prime minister is a shareholder of that company. The prime minister is the head of government and we just got an agreement from government to help BTL expand its services."
"I think it's fair game, is it a game that I like? Obviously not, like I said, I have my own biases, I want to generate as much business as I could for BTL, and I want to see this company as all our players, all the team members, all our board members want to see this company as profitable because that is our mandate but we live in a reality where we have to compete. We aren't like BEL or WASA or the other public utilities that they're the only game in town, no, we operate in a competitive environment."
But the chairman said that while their revenue is seeing losses - he didn't have the on hand - but claims they have still exceeded their projected profit.
Mark Lizarraga, Chairman, BTL
"Despite of those accounts that we have lost, we are still ahead of target for this year. We are still performing better. We will perform better this year than we did last year and that is because all of us in this organization are committed to making the company profitable and competitive. So, are going to have to wheel and turn again? sure. we have to look at those cases. We will make an absolute study with the best information that we can gather and get and see how we can fight that for that business and get it back."
"I think it's a fair statement to say that the previous government, while they declared a lot of dividends etc., they weren't paying it. It's no secret that we have huge debts, but we are meeting those obligations, something that wasn't happening before. So we are being responsible. We realize that the government cannot continue to keep us propped up, so to speak. We realize that we have to be good corporate citizens and we are being good corporate citizens and we will continue to be good corporate citizens. You have that commitment from this board and from this team. So that's the reassurance that I can give you. Yes, we would have hope that we would get all the business, but again, we are operating in a competitive environment and we have to be competitive. That's the nature of business."
