Government lied...that's the best that can be said after a disclosure made today by the Prime Minister. At a first of its kind open subject Press briefing the Prime Minister addressed the media on a broad Range of topics from the CCJ to the DFC. But most interestingly, he told the press that government was never paid cash for the U.S. $57 million it fronted to facilitate the BTL buyout but instead Jeffrey Prosser's ICC simply took over the loan from the International Bank of Miami.
That statement clashes directly with the statement put out by the government on the day of the sale which quoted the Prime Minister as saying: "On behalf of the Government of Belize, I wish to confirm the receipt from ICC of U.S. $89,729,838 being the purchase price of shares that have just been transferred to BTL." That's crystal clear: U.S. $89 million for majority holdings in BTL so clear that it's been repeated by the Minister of Finance in the National Assembly and in interviews. But today what once appeared to be a very straightforward transaction seemed very dubious when the PM admitted that they never got that cash.
Jules Vasquez,
Has Prosser paid the U.S. $57 million as has been stated? The Minister of Finance told me that and it has been announced but we have information that all he (Prosser) did was take over the loan from the International Bank of Miami and hasn't paid it off.
Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"I don't know what is Mr. Prosser's arrangement with the International Bank of Miami; whether he has paid off the loan or whether he has made arrangements with them to pay it off. What I can tell you is that the loan obligation for the government of Belize has been settled when the government sold its shares and Social Security sold its shares. In other words the government does not have a loan obligation to IBM for that loan; Mr. Prosser has the obligation."
Jules Vasquez
We are not a guarantor?
Hon. Said Musa,
"No."
Despite the Prime Minister's emphatic disclaimer, 7NEWS has received credible reports that government continues to act as the guarantor for the U.S. $57 million loan, which if true would mean that even as ICC has taken over the loan, government continues to be at the mercies of Jeffrey Prosser. It's a characterization that the opposition very much believes and in May the Leader of the Opposition put the question to the Minister of Finance who responded by saying that the Central Bank had been credited for the amount of money.
Notably, this isn't the first time a discrepancy in the U.S. $89 million has come up. When government had to return the union's shares, the U.S. $89 million quickly turned to U.S. $87 million, with government claiming that it never sold the union's shares. A claim that was brought seriously into doubt when both the media and the unions detected that their original 'B' shares had been swapped for 'C' shares.