And, changing gears now from local to national politics, former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow today appeared before the Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the sale of government assets between October 2019 and November 2020 - basically in the year preceding the election.
In that time government sold 112 vehicles for about 300 thousand dollars - and Prime Minister Barrow would have had to sign off on most of them. But, he did this after the paperwork came up from the vehicle care unit and through the financial secretary.
Today as the very first witness. in the the first day of hearings at the Government House Compound in Belize City, Barrow volunteered his involvement in the sale of three vehicles to outgoing senior government officials - but said that he also put up a firewall to prevent a mass sale of assets, mainly vehicles:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Former Minister of Finance
"Whenever though, an election, a general election was imminent there would be a number of requests coming from Ministers who did not feel for one reason or another or were not sure that they would be returning, so there would be, not a stampede but certainly an accelerated pace of requests from outgoing ministers to be allowed to purchase their vehicles. Because we were aware that it was more likely than not that people would be making these requests, the financial secretary and I discussed this and we thought we'd better launch a preemptive strike. Because we were talking about especially unusual circumstances, especially critical circumstances where the finances and pretty much everything else of the country had been ravaged by Covid, the Financial Secretary therefore wrote a letter with my endorsement and blessing to the Cabinet secretary to say: let Ministers, Chief Executive Officers all know whoever comes next there will be no money for replacement vehicles so we will sell to outgoing Ministers and Chief Executive Officers no vehicles."
But despite that pre-emptive strike, former PM Barrow outlined the exceptions that he was directly involved in. One was for retiring President of the Court of Appeal Manuel Sosa, the other was for outgoing UDP Minister Dr. Carla Barnett and the other for Deputy Prime Minister Hugo Patt. He started with Justice of Appeal Sosa - who asked to buy his Government - supplied Toyota Land Cruiser after 12 years of use:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Former Prime Minister
"The government vehicle that had been assigned to him he had been driving for 12 years. He asked Mr. Chairman and Commissioners whether he would be allowed to purchase that vehicle. But he made the request of the Financial Secretary who did come to me. I will say and stand foursquare behind this, I had absolutely no difficulty in telling Mr. Waight that as far as I was concerned that was a request we needed to honor. Mr. Justice Sosa, during his entire tenure on the court of appeal refused to have any policeman assigned to him as security and refused the offer of a driver to be paid for by the government. Those two things over that 21 year period saved the government a great deal of money. In my view it would be churnish, mean spirited in the extreme not to have acceded to the request of Mr. Justice Sosa. Dr. Carla Barnett, who as you know a Senator, and who was not coming back into government no matter what, regardless of the results of the election, which results people like you knew to be a foregone conclusion. But it didn't matter. Whichever way it went Carla Barnett was not coming back. She spoke to Joe and then spoke to me and said listen I have been a consultant, well she has served as you know all over the place. Vice president of CDB, Assistant Deputy Secretary General at CARICOM. She said: look I am going back out and I'll be on, in effect- my words not hers- the mercy of the world. I won't have the money to buy another vehicle in a better condition than the one I am currently driving, I would wish for you to make an exception to the policy that you have laid down and allow me to purchase my vehicle. Again, I thought her circumstances were exceptional and that she should be allowed to purchase the vehicle. Mr. Waight, the Financial Secretary, Joe Waight, had Customs do a valuation and came to me and said: I think this valuation is too low and Joe recommended that we sell to Dr. Barnett for more than the Customs valuation. The only other exception in the run up to the general election came by way of a request from the then Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Hugo Patt. Again, the Deputy Prime Minister went directly to the Financial Secretary who came to me. I spoke to the DPM and said but you know the policy. I thought that also as a special favor I would agree and I so indicated to Joe Waight. What happened thereafter though, was that the usual requirement, from me that there be a Customs valuation so that we could document that we were not selling for any under value did not happen. And I don't know whether it was because that didn't happen or whether there was some other reason, whether it just fell through the cracks but that one did not come to me for my formal approval."
And from the sale of vehicles to the sale of customised furniture and a laptop plus iPad to the former Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte…the former Prime Minister said he learned about this matter after the sale was completed - and got a sharp response from the PSU rep. Luke Martinez:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Former Prime Minister
"He either wrote to or called Joe Waight about the purchase of furniture that for the most part, he tells me, was forniture specially treated. I will need to be delicate. Furniture consisting of a couch and some chairs that had to be acquired with certain dimensions and size specifications in mind and in addition had to be reinforced because of senator Peyrefitte's size and weight. His finance officer said to him: why don't you apply to buy these things off of them? Nobody else can use it. They were specially adjusted for you. And so, in that context he spoke to the Financial Secretary but a letter did come from the vehicle care unit saying that these pieces of furniture he was advising needed to be disposed of. Now, I know that included in what was sold to Senator Peyrefitte was a laptop."
"And an ipad I believe."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Former Prime Minister
"And an ipad. Now I don't think the same argument can be made as is made with respect to the furniture. The FF will tell you that a number of Chief Executive Officers applied to be able to purchase their laptops. But he said that in his view, people had their own, a la Hillary Clinton, their personal emails and stuff on these devices unrelated to work and he just thought that these were fairly small items. I will tell you that except for the Peyrefitte lot, the furniture and the two devices, I was never approached to approve the sale of laptops to Chief Executive Officers or to any other Minister."
Luis Martinez
"To sell off the national assets for, I don't have the figures, but you could imagine for remittance, is not acceptable. And so, we would want to hear why it was impossible to get some of these procedures in black and white, in regulations. So, our concern is why didn't we follow the regulations. The procedures were not followed through all the way. Let's say the practice, because the procedures are difficult to find."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Well if there are no procedures then you can say that successive governments ought to have done more to put procedures in place. But I must take issue with the way you frame your remarks, sir. You are suggesting that people who were retiring were gifted these vehicles. Nobody was gifted anything, sir. They were allowed to purchase at the proper value."
Luis Martinez
"So now you allow one to carry home serviceable furniture, I imagine these furniture are not cheap, for we don't know what's the amount, we will get that figure from the FinSec, the ipads and the laptops, man Coronavirus has closed schools down and so why couldn't we then gift those equipments to the schools? Meanwhile we wait for the promised equipment that was supposed to come for the schools, so you can't give away the things."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Mr. Martinez, I have told you sir. That I had nothing to do with the sale of the laptops, except in the one instance of Peyrefitte where it was bundled up together with the furniture. So listen, so you reserve, respectfully, you reserve those questions and those comments for the Financial Secretary. But in terms of furniture that had been specially adjusted for him, given his dimensions, again sir, I have to repeat my term, it is churlish to say that there is something wrong or something malodorous about allowing the man to purchase, what I was told for the most part was furniture that basically was purpose built for him."
Luis Martinez
"Okay, that isn't justifiable."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Well then that's your view sir and when you come to write your report you can say that. As far as I am concerned it was entirely justifiable."
Luis Martinez
"It is not justifiable for the public officers."
