Eleven Bills Passed in Special House Sitting, Including SSB Settlement Bill

Today, the Government of Belize passed a total of eleven bills at a special sitting of the House of Representatives at the George Price Center in Belmopan. The meeting came to an end just after five o’clock and saw the deliberation of eleven bills. Among those Bills were the Social Security Board Settlement Deed Bill 2024 which will see the government come to a settlement and payment terms with SSB after they had used monies to acquire the BTL shares held by Sunshine Holdings Limited in 2009 and the other acquisition in 2011 that had to do with the shares in the BTL Employees Trust.  Prime Minister spoke on this settlement saying that it is time that this matter is settled.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “The previous government when they did the settlement, they did not collect the money to pay off Social Security. They went to court and the court said, well you’ve already paid the monies to the wrong people. And so the then Prime Minister sent a letter to Social Security saying, don’t worry about it we are going to pay and continue to accrue in interest of 8.5 percent. And now that we have to settle this that letter was really illegal. Sorry? Oh, they paid to the Ashcroft Alliance. Yes, they overpaid. And so that letter that was sent was illegal because any monies over $5 million has to come to the House for approval. And so we could have said that we’re not going to honor it but we have to protect the people’s money, the social security workers’ money. And so we’re coming to the house to legalize that. That bill, in effect, comes up to what to do basically we round it off to $30 million. So today, because the previous prime minister did not do his homework and properly check the settlement that he signed in Miami, it is costing the Belizean people another 30 million dollars that we could have been using for so many other needs for our people. In 2008 when the government, the new government got in, there were no issues with BTL. There were no issues. When you found out about the accommodation agreement. The leader, the prime minister then, a very good attorney, I would never take that away from him, knew that…. and I hate to say this because I don’t want to go against my former prime minister, that that accommodation agreement when it was signed, when for instance there are two things that were signed there, one with PUC saying that the PUC would not have access, right? Wait, wait, yes, that’s why I’m not hiding it. I am not hiding it, I am telling you. And also on the issue of taxation, he knew that a minister, the Minister of Finance, cannot sign such agreement without the consent of the Public Utilities Commission and without the consent of the Commission of Income Tax. So all he had to do was go to court and challenge it and he would have one, story done. We didn’t have to go to all of this that you went through. I’m telling you, if you would listen man, that’s your problem. You don’t listen and then you embarrass yourself. I listened to you when you were talking. The point is that there was no issue. That’s why we have the courts. He could have gone to court and all of that would have been settled then and there.”

The opposition did not support the bill which was made clear when a division was called for the SSB Bill.  Notably, the Leader of the Opposition, Moses Shyne Barrow was not present nor was Hugo Patt and Denise Barrrow.  Interestingly, the opposition votes came from Albert’s Tracy Panton and Collet’s Patrick Faber expressed concerns over the bill and the origin of the agreement, which he says dates back to the Musa Administration. 

Patrick Faber, Area Representative for Collet: “I will go in detail this afternoon to tell you what the secret accommodation agreement was about so that you remember who is responsible for the issues that we have had, why we had to acquire BTL back, why we had to spend those millions of dollars which you now lament on. But before we go there, in fact, they agreed, Ashcroft agreed and his companies agreed that they would buy back shares. But remember now the government is so desperate to get rid of BTL, they want to get rid of it so bad that they reduced the price of the shares. So what you had bought it from Ashcroft for, you are now selling at a very discounted rate back to Ashcroft. Ashcroft says to you, that’s the only way I’ll take it back at a very reduced rate. And then again he meets the fool and he deals with him. He tells your government, he tells Prime Minister Musa that I want another 20% of the company which will come through Sunshine Holdings. And guess who will pay for those shares? Do you think it’s Mr. Ashcroft, Madam Speaker? No way, guess who will pay for that 20% of the shares for BTL? That Ashcroft will control to help him help you take back the company that is now a problem on your hands.  Guess who, the Belizean people. Your administration sir, the one that you were deputy prime minister for. The one that my friend from Freetown was the Attorney General for, agreed to buy 20% of the shares for Sunshine Holdings paying with government money and a loan from Social Security. That is the shame in all of this. Ashcroft will control this 20%, he buys another  15%, when we added it all up he would have controlling shares of BTL. But the shares that he bought back were reduced so we lost money then but you all don’t talk about that you expect people to forget it. You caused a major loss in your administration at that time when you had to sweeten the pot for Ashcroft to buy back those shares, but you also caused major damage again financially to the company and to Belize when your government said we will buy back along with a loan from Social Security shares to be placed in Sunshine Holdings.”

Both bills were passed despite the opposition’s disapproval.