"Manifestly Shaky" that's how the editorial in today's Amandala described Minister Ralph Fonseca's management of the country's finances. And tonight the pending sale of BTL to ICC seems to be just that: "manifestly shaky."
That's because 7NEWS is in possession of documents which show that BTL and its competitor, Speednet - which is nominally owned by first cousins of deputy prime minister John Briceno - have struck a deal to work together. It's a highly unusual arrangement for two companies that are supposed to competitors, but it's certainly not a crime. But to ICC and the finance ministry it's more than a crime, it's very nearly treason, because the deal was secretly orchestrated, apparently to undermine the pending sale of BTL to Innovative Communications Company, ICC.
While those tactics are typical of Michael Ashcroft's cut throat strategy, the scandal in this is that to pull it off, Ashcroft had the cooperation of the first cousins of the deputy prime minister John Briceno - which implies that the deputy himself may have known about it - because after all, the deputy's good name must have played some part in securing a telecom license for Speednet in the first place.
Now it's blown up into a very big deal for government - because the agreement signed on February 6th of this year during the due diligence period - only became known to Ministry of Finance officials last week. And not only was it a secret from GOB, it's a secret from ICC as well and now threatens to undermine the entire sale which has to be completed in one week's time.
When ICC executives arrive early next week, they are sure to ask government how it could have allowed Ashcroft to sign such a deal with relatives of the deputy prime minister in February, at a time when government had paid for and owned BTL, but left Ashcroft's CEO Dean Boyce to run it. And more than that, how could a secret deal with BTL's competitor have been left out of the disclosure and due diligence?
The situation as it currently stands threatens to scuttle the entire deal and with it jeopardize $114 million dollars of taxpayer's money which government, perhaps unwisely, put up to manage the entire deal. But there's nothing that we can do about it - the cat's out of the bag - and presently in wide circulation is an agreement between Speednet and BTL, a 15 year, half a million dollar contract.
According to the terms outlined in its 21 pages, Speednet will lease a room from BTL in the international building, adjoining the Esquivel Telecom center on Saint Thomas Street. The agreement states that Speednet will use the room to provide telecommunication services for 15 years up until February 2019 with a fee of $2,375 a month for the first year, with an annual 3% increase. The agreement is signed by Jorge Briceno for Speednet and Mary Meighan for BTL, the manager for corporate sales. It is one of as many as four contracts which are said to cover interconnection, sharing of customer databases, technology and shared use of equipment.
Now next week, government's top negotiators including the Minister of Finance have to explain to ICC executives how such a thing could have happened - or essentially how the family of the Deputy Prime Minister and BTL owner Michael Ashcroft appear to have been working together - and against the government of Belize. Government is expected to take the position that it will challenge the contract.