B.T.L. still unsure of next move
Just hours after a Supreme Court judgment that went against Belize Telecommunications Limited, the company is still trying to absorb the reality of the ruling. According to the company’s attorney, Lois Young Barrow, B.T.L. is calmly planning its next move. But she herself is nothing less than shocked by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh’s conclusion that last year’s stop order issued by government against B.T.L.’s new rate structure was valid. Young Barrow says one reason for her astonishment was that the decision took seven months to be delivered, institutionalizing the new prices for almost a year.
Lois Young Barrow, Attorney for B.T.L.
“From the very start, he seemed to be–the Chief Justice–he seemed on board with our allegation of unfairness in how the stop order came about, at least he was receptive to the arguments that I was, or the submissions that I was making, he was very receptive. So much so, that I think that may have been something to give the injunction in the first place. So when his ruling came out yesterday and the Chief Justice did what I would call a ninety degree turn on the question of unfairness and said that actually the stop order was brought in with a fair procedure, I was very surprised. That’s the first thing. The second thing that surprised me was that the Chief Justice made a finding on the evidence which was that the Minister of Communications, Mr. Maxwell Samuels, that there was no evidence of what was presented to Minister Samuels and his group of advisors, which would have included his C.E.O. Dr. Gonzalez, the P.U.C. Chairman Dr. Canton in Belmopan by the B.T.L. Directors, that there was no evidence of what was presented Mr. Samuels on the eight of February 2001. I was surprised at that finding because the evidence in the affidavit of the Chief Executive Officer of B.T.L. three paragraphs actually led up to that paragraph fifteen in which it was clear that what was presented to Minister Samuels was B.T.L.’s proposed new tariffs, with all the justifications…the same package that had been presented to Minister Fonseca the month before, was simply repeated and enhanced.”
Janelle Chanona
“Do you think there was some sort of interference on some level why…”
Lois Young Barrow
“I don’t know. No, I have no evidence of that. It was just surprising to me. Honestly, I was shocked. But I have no evidence of that.”
But in the meantime, there is the question of what will happen to all that money B.T.L. made during the “tariff rebalancing”.
Lois Young Barrow
“Whatever the company needs to do to comply and to protect its legal interest, it will do.”
Janelle Chanona
“Does that mean, as your reading of the judgement, that B.T.L. will have to pay customers back anything?”
Lois Young Barrow
“I don’t know what they are going to do about implementing the stop order. There are several different services that are offered, some and some of the services had higher rates as a result of the new rates, some had lower rates. It’s an accountant’s job, I don’t know what is going to turn out of what they have to do over there but even if B.T.L. wanted to take this matter any further, to comply with the stop order is going to take quite a few days, and maybe more than a few days.”
Janelle Chanona
“As far as what is going to happen next, is B.T.L. planning to appeal this decision?”
Lois Young
“They haven’t made a decision as I said, they got a copy of the judgement this morning. It’s many, many pages long and I think they will be consulting on what they want to do, but no decision has been made.”
If B.T.L. appeals the decision, it would be made to the Belize Court of Appeal, which resumes session in March 2003. According to Solicitor General Elson Kaseke, who successfully argued the case for government, the ruling clearly indicates that as of yesterday B.T.L. must revert to its old lower rates for local service and must pay refunds to all customers who were overcharged during the previous eleven months. We were led to believe that Cabinet would be providing some indication of government’s stance this evening, but at news time no such information had been received.
