And while the media knows its own pain - Cabinet doesn't know anything about the BTL's planned acquisition of Speednet. Last week you heard senior minister Francis Fonseca disclaim any knowledge and so did Minister Kareem Musa. Musa noted that the matter is expected to reach Cabinet for discussion tomorrow.
He conceded that there should be public buy-in because BTL is involved:
Jaleeza Roberts -
"Have you as a cabinet member been briefed on the proposed BTL acquisition of SpeedNet?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration, Labour, and Governance
"Not at the cabinet level. I haven't been briefed on it, but I have been paying attention to it. Obviously, it's something that has been intensely scrutinized, so to speak, not just by the media, but also by civil society. And I was able to see some of the remarks made at the press conference last week. So in terms of the nuts and bolts, we have not been briefed on that, but it is expected that at tomorrow's cabinet, this will be a matter for discussion."
Jaleeza Roberts -
"Do you believe that the cabinet should have been briefed first, being that this is a publicly owned utility?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration, Labour, and Governance
"I've heard the remarks of the chairman of BTL saying that it's a private company, but as you rightly pointed out, it is a government-owned private company. And so I believe that we should be very upfront in terms of the information, not just to Cabinet, but to the wider public, in terms of disclosure, in terms of all of the nuts and bolts. This is a very significant merger, a significant acquisition, I believe a total of 170 million. And so there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. And so I think that publicly presenting that to get the buy-in from the public is vital."
