Political adversaries call him "Friend Glen" - in reference to Glen Godfrey's former position as the ultimate insider in the Musa administration. And certainly one of the deepest inside positions he's held was as Chairman of the DFC - a DFC that would participate in the securitization of tens of millions of dollars of transactions featuring mortgages or loans from or associated with Godfrey companies. So did the ultimate insider use his connections to pull those off? Today Godfrey explained to the Commission of Inquiry that that's the furthest thing from the truth; he defended his actions as Chairman from 1999 to 2002 in a spirited final day of public hearings. And it was made more spirited by the fierce representations of Godfrey's attorney Elson Kaseke. Here are highlights.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Looking slightly the worse for wear after being roughly detained by San Ignacio Police one week ago, Glen Godfrey's attorney Elson Kaseke came out roaring with a preliminary statement.
Elson Kaseke,
"I beg your leave to introduce myself, I am Dr. Elson Kaseke."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"It is five minutes Mr. Kaseke."
Elson Kaseke,
"What is five minutes Madam Chair?"
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"You have five minutes to address the commission on what concerns you have."
Elson Kaseke,
"I do not know why I am not being allowed to make my submission. Why am I being limited with a straight jacket, being given five minutes?"
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Just go ahead Mr. Kaseke, please."
Elson Kaseke,
"Thank you very much."
He would go on for thirty three minutes accusing the Commission of partiality.
Elson Kaseke,
"Justice Lord, Ms. Bailey Martinez, we submit that your Commission has engaged in what can only be called an egregious partiality, bias and pre-judgment, especially against my client and there has been shown through individual commissioners almost an insatiable proclivity for the desire to be in the public stage of media attention by giving what we call unlawful and illegal press interviews.
The above contravention of my client's section 14 rights renders in my respectful submission, everything your commission did, and is doing, and it makes your commission's hearings and any report emanating there from, susceptible to quashing by the Supreme Court. It is well set out that before an investigative tribunal can publicly condemn or criticize a citizen, it must first give you a fair opportunity for correcting or criticizing what is said against you. To do otherwise, as your Commission did, is to be doubly guilty of bias."
Kaseke also complained about the forensic auditor but he was silenced on that one.
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Mr. Kaseke, the Chair has said that we will not hear that submission. If you consider it any breach, then you take it up with the appropriate authorities. Please move on to your other submission."
Elson Kaseke,
"May I submit that I am hearing from you that I am being shut out."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Please move on. Mr. Kaseke you need to respect the decision. You make
your submission, you need to respect the decision of the Commission and being argumentative is unacceptable."
But he complained that what was really unacceptable was Lois Young-Barrow advising Merlene Bailey-Martinez.
Elson Kaseke,
"We submitted then and we submit now that since one of the Commissioners has expressly gone on the record and said that he is under the advisement of no counsel, the Commission cannot be half divided on the issue of counsel and we object to Miss Barrow being counsel only to Mrs. Bailey-Martinez. We see that Miss Barrow is continuously passing notes to Commissioner Bailey-Martinez. We have seen in previous hearings which were aired on television that questions which were being asked by Mrs. Martinez came from…"
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"How did you see that Mr. Kaseke? Be very careful when you make those statements."
Elson Kaseke,
"Much obliged."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Be very careful because you are venturing in the dangerous territory between my counsel and information passing between my counsel and me. Do not go there Mr. Kaseke."
Elson Kaseke,
"Much obliged. We therefore object to the continued sitting of counsel at the head table and the fact that she…."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Your objection is noted."
After Kaseke's over a half an hour declaration, Godfrey took the oath and started his testimony complaining again.
Glen Godfrey, Former DFC Chairman
"Madam Chairman this passing, I understand what the Minister was saying, this passing of prompt notes or whatever it is or questions or whatever it is, is very very distracting."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Mr. Godfrey, I have the right to be represented by counsel. I have the right to have counsel present and I could reciprocate by saying your counsel whispering in your ear could be distracting but that is not my purview. How my counsel advises me, it is almost to…to even consider that. Now is that matter settled Sir? That how my counsel advises me is not a matter for you?"
Glen Godfrey,
"It is certainly not."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"So you will keep disrespecting this Commission by saying you have objections to how my counsel advises me?"
Glen Godfrey,
"What disrespect is that, with the greatest respect, what disrespect is that?"
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Sir you've made your point. You've made your point."
Glen Godfrey,
"I am saying it is not finished because I intend to take it to a higher tribunal."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Okay, that is fine."
And while the notes were one thing, newspaper photographer Angel Novelo was another as Godfrey posed for him.
Glen Godfrey,
"You can understand why they don't allow these things in the court of law."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"I see. Do you have objections to him so doing Sir?"
Glen Godfrey,
"No, not at all."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"I am sure the picture will look very nice."
Glen Godfrey,
"I'm not as photogenic as I used to be one time."
With that out of the way, Godfrey said it was government who made the DFC take on investments that would eventually lead to the Corporation's demise.
Glen Godfrey,
"Before we took it on, we had a discussion with the Minister. I said, 'Minister this is really not going to work, you all will have to take over infrastructural costs, and we went back and forth, what exactly they would take over, what we would be left with, until finally at the end of the day I said, we said, 'guess what, the only way we are going to take over this project is if you give us an undertaking that any loss suffered by the DFC. If there is any losses, the government will recover those losses.' The same thing happened at Mahogany Heights, the same with the RMB houses.
While people are saying, oh the government had to bail out the DFC,' Government didn't bail out any DFC. What government did was to live up to the promises it had made when we took over the projects. That's it, it's a simple thing."
And it was also government's fault, according to Godfrey, with the Novelo's loan.
Glen Godfrey,
"Governemnt had given a commitment to give the Novelo's an exclusive (contract) and I believe also there was something signed by Mr. Maxwell Samuels that said the same thing. But yes…."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"You have seen that document?"
Glen Godfrey,
"I believe I have seen that document and I think it created a great
uproar and then government backed off and of course as a result of that, Novelo's collapsed."
And government also failed to live up to its commitment in the case of Universal Health Services.
Glen Godfrey,
"The basis of that loan was that NHI was going to come on stream. The good doctor started his project and fully convinced that that would happen, halfway through it becomes obvious that that is not going to happen."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"Did the Board get that kind of assurance or confirmation from government that that particular institution would be used to provide services for the NHI?"
Glen Godfrey,
"I really can't recall that we had anything in writing."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"But they did that in the case of the bus franchise. So that could have been done as some kind of confirmation of the government's policy?"
Glen Godfrey,
"And it would have been as valuable I suppose as the reassurances they got on the bus matters with Mr. Novelo."
And while government's promise to the Novelo's was not worth the paper it was written on - Godfrey said he gave the green light to go ahead with the disbursement in one day.
Glen Godfrey,
"I had no concern about issuing the entire amount in tranche because at that point we had sixty million dollars in securities for the Novelo group, sixty million dollars."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"You were part of the process that disbursed this thrity million dollar loan in one disbursement based on a telephone call from Mr. Novelo?"
Glen Godfrey,
"Based on several phone calls from Mr. Novelo and other checks that I received, other documentation that I received showing that the man had paid his deposit and he had to make good on the remainder of it."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"What were those documentations Sir?"
Glen Godfrey,
"There were receipts for money he had paid, deposits he had made."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"You said you made a decision based on telephone calls."
Glen Godfrey,
"And documentation that was shown to me."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"When did you see the documentation as opposed to the telephone calls?"
Glen Godfrey,
"The decision was in a round robin."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"We have testimony from directors, particularly director Courtenay…"
Glen Godfrey,
"I am not privy to those."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"…Who said that he…"
Glen Godfrey,
"That's why it is unfortunate that we were not invited earlier so we would have had a chance to…."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"If you would allow me to finish."
Glen Godfrey,
"Let me finish, please."
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"No sir, let me finish what I was saying and then you can respond, who said that he was not aware of a one day disbursement. That is the testimony of Mr. Courtenay."
Glen Godfrey,
"I am not going to comment on Mr. Courtenay's memory or evidence that has not been brought to my attention before. If the thing was properly run, I would have a chance to…"
Merlene Bailey-Martinez,
"I do need to ask you…"
Glen Godfrey,
"Please let me respond, you asked for a response: if this thing was being properly run, I would have been allowed a chance to cross examine Mr. Courtenay. I was not allowed that so I don't see why I need to talk about his faulty memory or otherwise. But certainly there was nothing unlawful, illegal, or improper, unethical about getting that loan approved in one day. If we didn't do it, they would have suffered huge losses and it would not have been good for a prospect of collecting loan."
And while that loan was never collected on - in our next segment, we'll show you how the commission alleged that Godfrey's firm did collect on some very lucrative legal fees. Stay tuned for that, but first...
