And one man who requires no change in position is former Prime Minister Dean Barrow. On Friday he came out strongly against the port acquisition saying the government had not negotiated prudently or in the best interest of the public and that it was paying too much for the port, and too much to settle judgements that are uncollectible.
But, many in the PUP argue that Barrow has no moral authority to criticize their 200 million dollar settlement with Ashcroft when he paid Ashcroft 600 million for BTL - when it was worth about one fifth of that.
We did ask the former PM about that on Friday - here's the exchange:
Jules Vasquez
"You're saying they overpaid for it. For years, the knock against you has been that your government overpaid grossly for BTL. 600 million dollars, and the prime minister always tells me it is worth more than 110 million."
Dean Barrow, Former Prime Minister
"Let's look at that. Let's look at that. They've said that BTL was worth no more than $110 million dollars. BTL, when we acquired it was a very successful going concern. After we took it over under the stewardship of Net Vasquez, it went from strength to strength."
"They said, but, ah, but you paid 500 million dollars... We didn't pay $500 million for BTL, because as they said, I sat in a room with Ashcroft in Miami, you know? When I did negotiate the settlement with Ashcroft, first of all, I did not have a financial adviser. I did not have three or four high priced lawyers, so that cost the government nothing. And that settlement was merely that we would not proceed with the case at the CCJ in which Ashcroft was trying to overturn the constitutional amendment that made BTL our forever. They were saying that the constitutional amendment was unconstitutional. We agreed that would drop and I would then commit to paying what the international arbitrators - the matter was already in international arbitration - what these supposedly independent expert arbitrators decided was a fair price. Ashcroft's claim in front of the arbitrators was that BTL was worth $1.1 billion. We naturally put up our own assessment. We used a company called NERA. End result was what? The arbitrators what Ashcroft's claim by more than 50%."
"Given how the 500 million was arrived at, how can you know say that BTL, which was worth $110 million, was so much less valuable than this whole broken down port that you are paying $166 million for now?"
"How will you, without any proper expert assessment of the Ashcroft valuation and given the history that is valuation in BTL was cut by more than fifty… How will you simply accept that as the starting point and then pay 51% of it and say, you got a good deal, you are paying 51% of what was, in my view, a gross overvaluation, and that 51% still ends up being a gross overpayment."
We note that the NERA valuation which Barrow referenced - and which had been commissioned by his government put the value of BTL at under 75 million dollars.
