With Net Vasquez accepting his indebtedness, what about the other side of the contract? Marconi Leal Jr signed that contract with Tropical Vision on behalf of BTL as the then marketing officer. But now he has been promoted to director, as we told you earlier. This raised alarms as it seemed like a major conflict of interest. The media alerted Lizarraga to this concern, to which he said he had no idea about.
What he did know, however, is that Leal Jr is the CEO of the Ministry responsible for the Public Utilities Commission - an apparent conflict of interest - since the ministry directs policy for the PUC - which then regulates the phone companies. To use a sports analogy, it's like working in the league office directing the referees, and then coming down to the court, and playing in the game.
But Chairman Lizarraga doesn't see it that way - instead, he says it's a plus.
Markhelm Lizarraga, Chairman, BTL
"To be honest with you, I was not aware of what you just presented. But let me say this about the new board. I was very concerned about the composition of a board and I suggested that the board members have experience in the field, legal experience, business, and I must say I think the board is well balanced. We have with us CEO Marconi Leal of course who has experience in the company and we have CEO Jose Urbina who as well has a lot of experience in the telecom industry, we have a young businessman and entrepreneur Jermie Usher, a senior counsel Denise Courtenay who has over 20 years experience in commercial and banking and company law. We have Michael Bowen who is the director and CEO of the Bowen Group of Companies so I think we have a very hardy board."
Reporter
"Will there be any review based on the information Mr Cayetano brought up?"
Markhelm Lizarraga, Chairman, BTL
"I think again, you know, one has to get all the details you know, Alberto, there are many people in government that may have been put into positions where they had to do things and I think that for us to be fair, we have to look at the sequence of events, how things were done and why. And I prefer to leave it like that. But I'm happy to see CEO Leal on our board from the standpoint that he is the CEO now for public utilities so it gives us that direct connect for our minister and our ministry because we need to work together with them as well going forward and CEO Leal has a lot of industry experience as well so he bring that experience to the board which is a plus, I believe."
