The story of US$10 million us dollars in grant funds secretly diverted to pay off the Universal debt at the Belize Bank: it’s one of the biggest political scandals ever - and the fall out is massive. And one man who wants no part of it is aspirant for leader of the PUP Francis Fonseca. Today, he sent out a fairly remarkable statement on the secret diversion.
It says that he only knew only about the first $10 million; second, that then Prime Minister Musa never told him that the grant was more than US$10 million and that he only became aware of the other ten million, and the controversial use of it by watching the evening news. So it basically boils down to this: Musa and Fonseca had him in the dark too, basically lied to him, and what they did was both – he says – “unauthorized” and “secret”, and he wouldn’t have supported it then and can’t support it now.
It’s an explosive statement from a politician known to be conservative. But more than that it’s a dead-on flip-flop, considering the fact that Fonseca – along with Musa - signed 5 secret agreements for Universal Health Services between December 2004 and March 2007. The first two were the amended
loan facility and the famous guarantee in December of 2004 and then in 2007, a trifecta of them in one month: first the March settlement agreement and loan note and 6 days later the additional loan facility.
All of them were secret, and in a sense, more objectionable than the Venezuela secret diversion, because what he knowingly signed to was the use of taxpayers’ money not a foreign grant. And so valuable was that signature, that in his affidavit before the court, Belize Bank President Phil Johnson cites Fonseca’s signature as one of the three pillars of legitimacy that make the guarantee and all subsequent agreements enforceable.
And then there’s also Fonseca’s spoken word. In May of 2007 – when others were scrambling to get away from using public funds to pay the universal debt, he stuck by his guns. This from May 16, 2007 – he said he supported a structured solution.
Francis Fonseca, Former Attorney General
[May 16th, 2007] “I support a structured solution to the UHS matter. I think we are going to attempt to present to the Belizean people on Friday a structured solution to the problem. We have a legal obligation, a debt that will not go away regardless of who is in government. So we have to find a solution to that. So I support a structured solution.”
But obviously the Venezuela structure, wasn’t quite the thing. And in his statement today, Fonseca concludes: “I do not now, nor could I have then supported, any unauthorized or secret use of any portion of the Venezuelan grant….for any other purpose that what was agreed to between the two governments." Incredible not only because it takes just about the same position that Prime Minister Dean Barrow took yesterday, but because it’s saying just about that same thing that got three Ministers fired of chased out of Cabinet in May and June of last year. But still, it’s quite compelling except for the fact – we point out again – he’s objecting to the secret use of Venezuelan funds for the same thing he knowingly and secretly assigned Belizean funds to do.
And the man Fonseca has, so to speak – “thrown under the truck” - is his leader and former Prime Minister Said Musa. Musa has now admitted that he used grant funds – gifted for housing and poverty alleviation – to pay the Belize Bank and get out of the universal debacle. The current Prime Minister says it was the unauthorized use of public funds – but in May of last year, “public funds” are just what Musa said he would not use to settle the debt. Here is an interview from May 29, 2007.
Said Musa, Former Prime Minister
[May 29th, 2007] “Clearly the people are not happy with that. They don’t want taxpayers money to be used at all for this hospital, even though it is a very high quality tertiary hospital. The people are telling me, telling my government we don’t want you to pursue it in this way – we prefer it is kept as a private hospital and let the private sector pay for it. I have to respect that, and indeed I have. I want to make it abundantly, crystal clear – categorically clear that that is the road we are pursuing. There is no question of the government assuming this debt and paying it off and taking over this hospital. We have already changed course over the last several days.”
