Scrap the task force, and just do it. That's the advice that Tourism Minister Godfrey Smith has for Health Minister Jose Coye, who he implies is mismanaging the KHMH/Universal amalgamation.
In his weekly column in the Belize Times, Smith says that Cabinet has made the decision but he criticizes Health Minister Joe Coye for the way he's carrying out that decision. Smith argues that, "the government of Belize has floated the proposal more like a trial balloon rather than with the...persistence and clarity that a decision of this magnitude demands."
Smith concludes that, "the trial balloon should be exploded. The task force dismantled." He argues that Cabinet, not a task force should work out the mechanics and implementation strategy. And that strategy, unveiled for the first time in full, details a costly and complex series of transactions that will be required to square away Universal's publicly-guaranteed $30 million debt to the Belize Bank.
First, that $30 million debt would be swapped for what Smith blankly calls "land on Northern Ambergris Caye." 7NEWS has learned that the proposal package is for 8 to 9 thousand acres of land, pending a survey. That debt having been settled with the land deal, Universal would then make another $15 million loan from the Belize Bank. That new loan would be secured by Universal's assets.
And what's the new money for? Much of it, for the same Belize Bank! First, $4 million will be used to pay the principal debt to the DFC. The beleaguered DFC would then smilingly write off the $8 million in interest that Universal owes. The $11 million left from that new loan would then be used for two purposes: first, to meet Universal's still outstanding debts, and, incredibly, to service the same $15 million loan that it is a part of!
And for all this trouble, what does government get? Two-thirds of Universal, with the management of that hospital having racked up $44 million in debt, getting to hold unto a third. Of course all this is because government gave an indefinite public guarantee to Universal's private debt, and Smith concedes that while perhaps that shouldn't have been done, it was, and government's plan, he argues is the only way to save what he calls "a valuable asset" from being divested in a fire sale by the Belize Bank.
And if you're trying to connect the dots on Northern Ambergris, the land proposed to be included in the Belize Bank swap, is adjacent to the famous two thousand acres that a cash-strapped government force-sold the Social Security Board in August of 2004. The understanding now is that Michael Ashcroft's Belize Bank, through his various corporate vessels would embark on a major development in the area.
