Thursday, March 13, 2008

More scandal as Barrow reveals secret $20 million from Taiwan

More scandal as Barrow reveals secret $20 million from Taiwan

Reprinted from Channel 5 Belize
http://channel5belize.com/

As one of the country’s finest lawyers, Prime Minister Dean Barrow is no stranger to the art of courtroom theatrics. But with the kind of case he’s got against his defeated and demoralised political opponents, he did not need the skills of a Johnny Cochran. Today Barrow twisted the knife a little deeper in his predecessor by exposing another undisclosed diversion of public funds and offered evidence that the true nature of the Venezuelan deal was known to others beside Said Musa and Ralph Fonseca. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I certainly never imagined that on this scale, this sort of thing was being done.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
As the investigations into diversion of government funds to settle the debts of Universal Health Services continues, this afternoon Prime Minister Dean Barrow had a field day disclosing the lurid details of the financial transactions the Musa administration used to make good on its guarantee with the Belize Bank.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“The previous administration paid over not ten million U.S. to the Belize Bank with respect to the U.H.S. debt, but twenty million U.S. In addition to the ten million dollars from Venezuela that we knew about, the inquiry has discovered and disclosed that there was another ten million U.S. dollars gifted to the people and Government of Belize by the Republic of China on Taiwan.”

While Barrow explained that Taiwan had earmarked the funds for improvement of Belize’s health care, the use of the secret Venezuela gift to pay the Belize Bank ran counter to the agreement signed between the two nations.

Documents obtained in Venezuela by the Government’s delegation confirm that as per the wiring instructions of former Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amalia Mai, the Venezuelan grant was divided into two payments, a well publicised ten million U.S. dollars to the Central Bank’s accounts in New York plus an undisclosed ten million U.S. to a Belize Bank account in London.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“The officials of the Government of Venezuela have said to them directly that contrary to what the ex-Prime Minister and the ex-Minister of Housing have said, there was never any understanding or side arrangement that this money was to be used for any purpose other than what was reflected in the formal agreement, what was reflected in the wiring instructions, what was reflected in the letter that the Venezuelans sent to Amalia Mai confirming that the monies had been dispatched in accordance with her instructions. They always knew that the purpose for which the money was being gifted or the purposes were the ones I have described: one million for Marion Jones, nine million for home improvement and ten million for new home construction.”

The Government has appointed a legal team, comprised of Solicitor General Tanya Longsworth, Gian Ghandi and a private attorney yet to be appointed to investigate the legal liability of Said Musa, Ralph Fonseca and Amalia Mai.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“The lawyers will advise us as to, first of all, whether criminal charges are to be filed and if so what those charges would be and against whom those charges would be filed. I really don’t want to go beyond that. Believe me, I wish I could return to the carefree days of Opposition when I could let fire—let fly to my hearts content but I really believe I have to be careful. There’s a question of lawyerly tricks that might be employed on behalf of any possible defenders with respect to pre-trial publicity. So believe me there is every good reason for my handling it in as restrained a fashion as I possibly can.”

“The problem is as she pointed out, there are not punitive sanctions prescribed for violation of the Finance and Audit Act, a matter that I have put on record that we will remedy. At one of the first business sessions of the National Assembly we will pass legislation prescribing sanctions for breaches of the Finance and Audit Act. So there’s no doubt but it’s the larger question isn’t it? Forget breach of a law that doesn’t carry any penalty, have there been breaches of laws that do carry penalties and that’s what the lawyers must tell us.”

“The Belize Bank is saying that both in relation to the ten million U.S. dollars from Taiwan and the ten million U.S. dollars from Venezuela, the then Government of Belize gave them to understand that these monies were specifically for the repayment of the U.H.S. debt.”

But a confirmation note from Venezuelan authorities to the Belize Bank following the wire transfer made clear that the funds were to be used for housing, not debt repayment ... and Barrow says he wants the money back where it belongs.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I’ve indicated to Belize Bank that I wish to put them on notice that the Government will also be taking legal advice as to whether they are not obliged to credit that money, return that money if you will, to the government for the people of this country. The Government is standing on very firm ground as the documents that I have handed out will demonstrate. I imagine that the bank and its principals will take their own legal advice. I am only serving notice that we propose to do precisely that with a view to seeking recovery of this money. I’ve indicated—I told you Mr. Johnson said he wished to be cooperative and that he had cooperated fully with the governor of the Central Banks inquiry. And I did indicate to him in order to be cooperative, for starters you could credit the ten million dollars to the account of the government and people of Belize now. He indicated that there might be some little difficulty with that but he’s not said no.”

And Barrow made clear that the message would be the same to Johnson’s boss.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“He said his principal is coming on Saturday and as I said I will put exactly the same proposition to his principal and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

But for all the monies paid to the Belize Bank by Belmopan, U.H.S. remains in private hands.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“The Government and people of Belize end up having not even one single solitary share in the facility now owned by Belize Health Care Partners group. The ownership of the new entity is divided between this Belize Healthcare Partners Trust and Dr. Venny’s company. And funnily enough, although Venny only put up twelve or thirteen million dollars loan to him by the Health Care Trust group, he owns fifty-one percent of the shares and the Health Care Trust group only owns forty-nine percent. As Lios Carol said, curiouser and curiouser.”

Barrow would also go on to disclose that at least one of the former owners of U.H.S., Dr. Victor Lizarraga, received a return on his investment in the hospital. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona

In related news it has been announced that on March twentieth Prime Minister Barrow will leave Belize en route for Washington, D.C., where he will meet with U.S. president George W. Bush.

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