Government gave the green light for National Assembly members to view the Universal guarantee on Thursday and on Friday Opposition Leader Dean Barrow was the first to do so. He took extensive notes and today produced 5 clauses and two pages of the 16 clauses that are in the 6 to 8 page document. Barrow revealed those excerpts and commented on them at length today at a UDP press conference. He said that after seeing it all he is very unconvinced.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Reproduced here are 5 clauses of the guarantee document. UDP Leader Dean Barrow transcribed them by hand when he went to view the document on Friday evening at the office of the Government Legal Counsel. He had them typed and circulated them to today's press conference.
Hon. Dean Barrow, UDP Leader
"This guarantee, the guarantee of the Government of Belize to the Belize Bank is an unlimited guarantee."
And he says he has a number of issues with it.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"The first is the date of the document and whether that date is authentic. As you have seen, and as I said earlier, the document that I saw bears this date of the 9th December 2004. Its hard to understand how if a guarantee existed at the date that appears on this document, that would have been kept from the Financial Secretary, government's chief operating officer with respect to the finances of this country.
All of us know that the government was last year, towards the end of the day, engaged in these critical debt restructuring negotiations. I have had occasions to talk to some of the creditors, or at least one creditor involved in the debt restructuring negotiations and I have had occasions to see some of the documentation that governed those negotiations and a cardinal requirement of the negotiation was that the government make full disclosure of all government liabilities including government guarantees. How then did Dr. Barnett who was the official, the public officer in charge of the negotiations not told about this guarantee if indeed it existed at the time and more importantly why then was the international creditors not told?"
And it goes beyond the Fin Secretary - right to a member of Cabinet.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"Government's renegotiation efforts were headed by a Minister, by a member of the Cabinet, the Minister of National Development, the Honorable Mark Espat. The question has to asked whether he knew of any guarantee at the time he was leading this process of renegotiation of the foreign debt and if so, why it was that he perpetuated this falsehood on the international creditors by not disclosing the guarantee. If his answer is that like Dr. Barnett he did not know of the guarantee then again it begs the question ladies and gentlemen, did that guarantee actually exist or is this date of 9th December a concoction after the fact."
And to buttress his argument, Barrow pointed to the budget book.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"In the budget book, there is absolutely no mention of any government guarantee with respect to Universal Health Services, any government guarantee to the Belize Bank. And that is the case last year, it was the case the year before, and it has been the case every year since the so called date of the guarantee which is 9th December 2004. So if the guarantee did exist at that time there was a failure to disclose it to the Financial Secretary. There was a failure to disclose it to the Minister of National Development. There was a failure to disclose it to the international creditors and there was a failure to disclose it to the National Assembly. While this government is capable of almost anything, it must strike you as strange that there were these serial non-disclosures of a document that the government now says was in existence at that material date."
So then is the guarantee document a fraud?
Jules Vasquez,
Would you say that this document has the appearance of a fraudulent document?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"I am not going to go that far. There are still laws of libel. I am not going to accuse the Prime Minister and the Attorney General of anything. There is nothing in the document itself that can prove that the document is a fraud. But you look at all the circumstances surrounding this thing and of course the questions jump at you quick and fast."
But even if it is a genuine document truly drawn up in December of 2004 Barrow says government could not legally enter it.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"This guarantee, even if it existed at the stipulated date, is a guarantee that the government of Belize had any authority to enter into and in my view, it is not. It is my considered view that the government cannot borrow without a resolution of the National Assembly. What has spelled out now in the new Finance and Audit Reform Act was in my view always the case. So in my view this guarantee, assuming that it existed at the stipulated date, the date that appears on it, was in any event a guarantee that the government of Belize had no authority to contract in the absence of a resolution of approval from the National Assembly."
And Barrow says that he expects will be the downfall when the Association of Concerned Belizeans makes that same challenge in the Supreme Court. But beyond the courtroom, he says the court of public opinion will be suitably harsh.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"Even if you accept that the date is authentic, my God, the contents of the guarantee, the facts of the guarantee is enough, in my view, to make you want to line up whoever entered into it at the foot of the Swing Bridge and hang them from the nearest lamppost."
To flesh out some details that are in the document: it is as Barrow noted, an unlimited guarantee with an interest rate at 13% per annum, and an additional 4% tacked on from the date of demand for payment.
