And while the budget was the biggest business of the day, the hottest came up when government presented a motion to sell the Libertad Sugar Factory, the Santa Cruz Lodge, and about 2,000 acres of adjoining farm land. The factory has been inoperative since 1995, and though this government has made political promises to operationalize the plant, it's never worked out. Now a Panamanian company, Merconsult S.A. wants to buy it to produce ethanol.
Politically, it sounds like a good deal, but for the opposition, the first problem is the price - a mere US$1.2 million - only half up front. And the second, major problem is the principal investor, Dr. Alfredo Oranges. The representative for Corozal Southwest Gabriel Martinez sounded off on the price first, followed by his party leader who had a remarkable revelation about Dr. Oranges and a mystery PUP friend.
Hon. Gabriel Martinez, Corozal Southwest Area Rep.
"Sold is not even a word, being given away. The price is at a US1.2 million. When you consider the two thousand acres of land that is going along with it, practically we would say that the factory is not even considered in the sale. The money is practically for the land."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"This Alfredo Oranges, well, the connection was made by my friend from Cayo South and by a local television station between Oranges and the PUP. I will go further and I will relate a personal experience that I had with Oranges.
I won't say who the member of the PUP is that accompanied Oranges when he came to my office after the UDP became the government in 1984 and I was appointed Minister of Economic Development. But accompanied by a PUP official, he came
to my office to propose that the new government make use of a supplier's credit facility that he was in charge of, that he was arranging, and that we could use it for housing.
And so I indicated that I was unconvinced and Senor Oranges made it absolutely clear that if I would agree to have the government make use of his facility, there would be so much in it for me personally. In other words, Senor Oranges attempted to bribe me as Minister of Economic Development in the UDP government in '84.
The PUP official who accompanied him to that meeting with me, knows that that is the truth. As I have said Madam Speaker, I won't go beyond that and I won't name that person. but if there is any denial that that took place, I will name that person. So Oranges is not the kind of person that I think this country should be doing business with.
And the fact that this government is now doing new business with him, because the relationship continued, the merits of reopening Libertad for ethanol apart, doing business with Alfredo Oranges is, based on my personal knowledge, not the sort of thing that as a country we should be engaging in and doing business with Alfredo Oranges is what the PUP has done on a continuing basis over the years and every bit of business that it has done with Alfredo Oranges has involved corruption, kickbacks, and the Belizean people not getting value for money.
That is why I say Madam Speaker I want to know about valuation, I want to know why it is that this contract, like the soy bean one, it is not stated as being approved by the Contractor General, because I know who Alfredo Oranges is and I know the propensity of this government based on its track record to enter into corrupt deals with Alfredo Oranges."
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"Trying to use the language of this is a corrupt deal, well Madam Speaker if every time the UDP shout 'corruption' we were to be paralyzed and not do anything, that is how a country will not develop."
The government also announced today that it will sell the non-functional soy bean processing plant in Yo Creek Village for less than a million Belize dollars.
