Is PM Barrow Satisfied with Cabinet Ministers’ Responses?
Dean Barrow
We asked the PM if he was satisfied with the responses given by members of his cabinet and if he was prepared to launch an investigation ahead of the testimony in Utah. PM Barrow admits that there is little that can be done without names being called and evidence being presented. But he says if anyone were to come clean after the fact, once that evidence has been put forward, those persons would still be fired for lying to cabinet about their financial interactions with Dermen.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Once there is evidence of monies having been received by any U.D.P. Cabinet member from this gentleman, game over. My reaction is going to be axiomatic and I promise the Belizean people that, as I have always done, I will move swiftly in the face of what I would know to be actionable wrongdoing. But we will get to that position sooner or later, perhaps we will not get to that position. I don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of evidence. I don’t know when the trial will actually start. All I can do, being a prisoner of the circumstances, in the same way you and the entire Belizean nation are also hostage to the whims of the U.S. judicial process. I can’t go beyond what I have said, and I can’t act before indeed evidence comes forward.”
Isani Cayetano
“Are you satisfied in terms of the responses given, considering the fact that it is less than likely that someone would come forward and say, “I took the money or I received the money”? Is there anything else that can be done, in your limited capacity, pending the outcome of the testimony to begin an investigation internally or what have you?”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“If you could show me how such an investigation would proceed, all we have is this documentation of what is not even evidence, what the prosecutor in the United States says he would like to lead as evidence. On that basis, what will we investigate in Belize. I have asked ministers squarely, did you get any money from this gentleman? They have told me no. I am saying that I must accept that because there is not a shred of evidence to the contrary, but we also know that in the States it being alleged that the situation is far different and I am telling you, ultimately, once there is a trial we will know if anyone was lying and who in such a circumstance is the liar and I will deal with that person or those persons.”
