Yesterday it was the Chamber of Commerce with its call on full disclosure of SSB's loan portfolios and today it was SPEAR calling for the same. The Society for the Promotion of Education and Research today sent out a release in support of the call for full disclosure of the SSB's financial reports which has been requested by the board's current directors. But tonight it's not only the NGO calling for the disclosure we today got to speak with the always irrepressible Minister of Works Hon. Jose Coye. He says that after conducting his own research into the SSB matter has come to the conclusion that there are inklings that all is not well with the people's money especially when it comes to the way the monies are invested.
Hon. Jose Coye, Minister of Works
“I have come to the conclusion that the funds to the extent that it was lent for that purpose and that it was guaranteed for that purpose I think went outside what I would consider to be the guidelines for lending. And I say this because SSB funds I consider them to be sacred funds, they are pensionable funds, and I am of the strong belief that we cannot expose it to undue risks. This is in the sense that the greater your risk, the greater your return in investment and we cannot afford to be using the SSB funds to say that we are making high risks investments for high returns. So I think the SSB funds should be put in virtually maybe risk-free environment to ensure its return. So to me apart from the risk of the nature of the investment in itself, I am not convinced that the asset that was used to back that investment, that securitization that they were using, I do not consider it to be adequate and to me that was faulty in itself. I strongly believe that the SSB, the management control of the SSB and DFC should be brought under the Cabinet. And that in the case of both of them and particularly the Social Security Board there should be more restrictive guidelines in its investment.”
Alfonso Noble,
We’ve had a number of dubious or somewhat dubious loans by the SSB. How is it that these things happen and continue to happen and there is really no leash or control on it...on this kind of activity of lending Social Security money the people’s money to private entities.
Hon. Jose Coye,
“I am a strong believer in this whole convention or doctrine of collective responsibility. If a government which we call the Cabinet, because the Cabinet is the government, and I believe that we should never have allowed the SSB nor the DFC nor the Central Bank and certainly not the Central Government to ever be outside the purview of the Cabinet. If two heads are better than one, thirteen must be better than one. So I think indeed that we may have failed in that area, that we have allowed the SSB and I want to point this out quite clearly that we have to accept the responsibility certainly individually or collectively. But as the political directorate, I am extremely disappointed in those who are appointed to those boards and investment committees whosoever they are. We have to have those structures, we have to have boards in place and we have to have committees in place and we have appointed people to those boards and to those committees. We never appointed them to be subservient to the politicians, they are appointed to be responsible and to act objectively. So to me, yes, while I accept that the political directorate ultimately has to carry the blame, these are the things which should have been prevented. And I have said it quite clearly more than once before that I am responsible but I cannot be guilty for something I wasn’t involved in the process of.”
Alfonso Noble,
Who is to blame centrally? You are saying the board yes but who controls the board? The board ought to have acted independently of ministerial sway but obviously it doesn’t. Who has directed the board to secure these loans and to finance these loans?
Hon. Jose Coye,
“Well I would say whosoever had the ultimate responsibility to do it is to blame.”
Alfonso Noble,
Who is that?
Hon. Jose Coye,
“Well in the case of the Social Security Board and the DFC that comes under the Ministry of Finance. If the board, and I think we need to examine carefully the Social Security Act and I must go back to it myself, if the board has a responsibility to make a decision without the discretion of the Minister then the board should not allow itself to be dictated to because board then would be violating the law. If the board is subjected to the ultimate decision of the Minister, in another words the board can have its say but the Minister will have his way, then obviously the ultimate responsibility will lie with the Minister.”
Alfonso Noble,
Is the Minister to blame?
Hon. Jose Coye,
“I would say if there was a judgement that was questionable and the board itself could not have made the final decision, whosoever made that final decision will have to be blamed.”
Alfonso Noble,
Was cronyism at all at question here?
Hon. Jose Coye,
“Well there are evidence, I suppose, to infer that is possible we are living in a very small society and if something is known to have been gotten by my son the suggestion but be that is cronyism and nepotism. But again certainly the individual we are referring to was a former member of the government but I am not here to really sanction or condemn him because he was an investor, he is a businessman and he came to the SSB and yes they were prepared to make funds available or facilitate a financial instrument to make funds available and he took advantage of it. The point is that the people who are entrusted with those funds are the ones who should have ensured that those investments were made in such a way that risk would be minimal.”
“I am calling on all members of the Cabinet, every member of this government, to support immediately changes in terms of the whole fiscal and financial management of the public sector. And I think we have to make now complete disclosure of the SSB financial situation, of the DFC, of the Central Bank, and of the Central Government in terms of our actual outturn. We need to come to the people with full disclosure.”
Adding on to the mounting list of those wanting public disclosure this evening the National Trade Union Congress of Belize issued a release in which is states that it seeks to obtain full and accurate information on the SSB's loan to Glenn Godfrey's Intelco. The release comes as a joint release from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Belize Business Bureau.