In 10 days away on official business he lost more political capital than he had to spare, but since his return the Prime Minister has been working steadily to build consensus and shore up support, first in Cabinet and then in the populace. Today he went on a media offensive, delivering a radio address and recording a television interview with his own Chief Information Officer Nuri Muhammad. And while it wasn't exactly a hard hitting session, it covered much of the same ground that he did in his radio address revealing, most incredibly, that when as head of government he signed a settlement deed and loan note with the Belize Bank on March 23rd, he never thought that it was final.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"In terms of the settlement deed and the loan note that came about after, it was be known in mind that we have been in negotiations for a period of time now with the Belize Bank and that continues. That was just part of the process in order to continue to move things forward. It was not an eventual, formal settlement of the matter.
I know there is a lot of controversy as to why, why sign a guarantee for a private institution. Well the short answer to that is that first of all I did so on the basis of firm legal advice that I received. Indeed I was informed and I knew for a fact that prior to the passage of the Finance and Audit Act in April of 2005, but at that time in 2004 there were several precedents were past Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance had given government guarantees.
At the time in December of 2004, the choice facing me was we either provide this guarantee, give the bank the level of comfort it needs to continue to finance the operation, or we would have overseen the collapse of UHS and it would have been the collapse of an institution that had been saving hundreds of lives, providing quality healthcare.
Yes they were not aware at the time of the guarantee that was given but after I made my explanation, and explained the circumstances, I reminded them that the Cabinet had taken a decision some time ago to settle the debt with the Belize Bank and to take over the Universal Health. There are several instances where this matter came up in the press in the past and that is no secret. This is the direction in which the government is going and we made it publicly known on various occasions.
We are dealing here with a question of process, procedure, as opposed to the objective. The objective was clearly understood from way back by the Cabinet and indeed yesterday the Cabinet confirmed that they understand that that is the position.
We are engaged and will continue to engage with the Belize Bank hopefully to have a solution fairly soon with a view to restructure this debt and also to ensure that we get value for money, and yes extend it over a long period of time."
The Prime Minister also confirmed that, as we first reported last night, there will be a House meeting shortly.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"We do intend to have a meeting, it will be a regular meeting of parliament. There are several bills that are pending, several bills that are still in committees that we intend to move forth head with and that will take place very shortly. I should also say that whatever the final restructured or structured solution to this problem, I do intend to take it to the National Assembly for approval before any payment is made."
Best information to us says that at that House meeting government hopes to present what we are told is a bond instrument to handle the Universal debt in much the same way the national debt was restructured. Again, this is under negotiation and it is not final but it seems to be the favored solution.
And while re-negotiating the Universal debt with the Belize Bank is one thing, the Prime Minister has to hope that his team can put together a deal that will win the support of what we are told is a contingent of at least five Cabinet Ministers who have indicated that they need to be convinced that the renegotiated package is legitimate discount and if it isn't, we are told they have indicated to the Prime Minister that they reserve their rights to vote against it in a House meeting.
In his own defense, the Prime Minister said in his radio address today that "I never lied to the Cabinet, the Public Finance Committee or the House of Representatives on this matter. The Cabinet accepts that I acted in good faith."
