There was a Public Finance Committee meeting yesterday chaired by acting Prime Minister John Briceno. The subject was the government's indebtedness to the Belize Bank on behalf of Universal Health Services. Today we reached acting PM Briceno and asked him for comment on the meeting. He would only say that, "I don't want to go into details. It would not be fair to my other colleagues." He added that the public finance group has to report back to Cabinet.
But speaking of the guarantee purportedly signed by the Prime Minister and witnessed by the Attorney General on December 9th, 2004, he said, "I knew nothing about the unlimited guarantee. If I had known then I would not have been able to support it"
Briceno said very much the same thing to his own TV station CTV-3 in Orange Walk. We have an audio recording of the very short interview where he expanded on that comment slightly, saying it was not a Cabinet decision.
Hon. Johnny Briceno, Acting Prime Minister
"It was not a Cabinet decision and we were unaware of this guarantee that was given to Universal Health Services. It would be difficult for anyone to be able to support an unlimited guarantee for a private sector loan and so certainly if I had known at that time, I would not have supported any unlimited guarantee to UHS."
So now that makes it two Ministers who have, first, said that they knew nothing of the Prime Minister's guarantee and second, added that had they known they would not have supported it. Of course, Briceno is more than just a Minister, he is the Deputy Prime Minister and the acting Prime Minister. And now his public disavowal of the guarantee makes it that much more difficult for the Prime Minister to take it to the House.
Of course, reports to us from multiple senior sources in the government say that there is more than a guarantee, there is a deed of settlement with the Belize Bank, the agreement that comes after a guarantee is invoked. It was reportedly signed by the Prime Minister three weeks ago.
As we said, 6 ministers attended the Public Finance Committee meeting, but today apart form Briceno, the only other one we managed to track down for a comment was Ralph Fonseca. Keith Swift met him at a ceremony and he refused to comment on the mater, explaining that what happens in a Cabinet committee is confidential and adding that he won't be helping to make any money for Channel 7.
We don't know what that means, but last we checked Cabinet Ministers were answerable on matters of public importance and a $33 million private debt to be paid with public funds seems eminently important.
Whatever the case, government insiders tell us that the inter-Cabinet situation remains volatile and charged. And with the Deputy Prime Minister now publicly distancing himself from the actions of the Prime Minister, there are clearly interesting times ahead. We'll keep you posted on how the multiple intrigues are developing.
