Caribbean Shores rep votes against loan write-off to the son of the Cabinet Secretary

A House Committee met in Belmopan today. A small crowd gathered to protest the write-off of a debt owed to the government by Joshua Perdomo, the son of the Cabinet Secretary, Carlos Perdomo. The loan was granted to Joshua years ago to undertake a Masters Degree in Forensic Genetics at the University of North Texas. But he never paid back though he was offered a payment plan; the loan was co-signed by Silvia Perdomo, Joshua’s sister.  When the motion was presented at the House sitting, the P.M. said Joshua could not be located. The write-off has incurred criticism because Joshua is seen to have received special treatment. Last week, the D.P.M., Patrick Faber, did not support the write-off, saying it was unfortunate.  In Committee today, four ministers supported the write-off: John Saldivar, Hugo Patt, Elodio Aragon Junior and Edmond Castro. Caribbean Shores Area Representative was the sole member to vote against the write off.  Here is what Musa thinks of the debt forgiveness. 

On the Phone: Kareem Musa, Area Representative, Caribbean Shores

“Well today was the house committee meeting in Belmopan and that committee is comprised of the Chairman who is the honourable John Saldivar, minister Hugo Patt, Minster Elodio Aragon, Minister Edmond Castor and for the opposition I was present there. And what happened today, the committee met to deliberate and to weigh in on the actual motion to write-off some forty thousand five hundred dollars that was bonded by Joshua Perdomo. Who at the time was studying forensics at the University of Texas I believe. What came out at that meeting today was that the bond was signed and consigned by Sylvia Perdomo, who is the sister of Joshua Perdomo. And I believe that according to the FinSec Joshua Perdomo was fully and finally terminated in the year 2014 from the government service. He has not paid back any monies and apparently there was some arrangement that he was supposed to pay back a thousand dollars per month. So the full principal sum of forty thousand five hundred was placed on the table today and voted upon by the government side. All in favour on their side, four and then one against which was my vote; against to take it back to the house for approval. So essentially that was what was on the table today. We sis have some members of the public, some concerned members of the public. Namely Miss Tanya Santos, Dwight Neal and Miss Contreras who attended this forum to express their views that they did not find that it was fair. That in fact Joshua Perdomo who every knows is the son of the cabinet secretary, no attempt to have been made to find him to have him pay back this bond. No attempt has been made to go after the co-signer of this bond, Ms. Sylvia Perdomo. So there is a lot of concern because there is a field, no doubt that there is nepotism at play here because this is a very, very big rear occurrence that you actually have a write off of a bond for someone going the study. The question was asked of the FinSec who even said that this is a rear occurrence and to his mind he cannot recollect of any situation like this particular one. There were four other write off on the agenda for today, but those were all for motor vehicle that were crashed from the government service. So those are the normal types of write off that comes to the house committee and goes to the house and the national assembly. But this particular one concerning Joshua Perdomo is a rare occurrence and no doubt one that has a lot of people very concerned. Because it appears that there is some special treatment being offered to him because of his relationship with the cabinet secretary.”