Senator Hulse: guarantee was inexcusable
Mark Espat, Said Musa, and Dean Barrow were not the only members of the National Assembly to comment on the U.H.S. loan guarantee. Outspoken Senator Godwin Hulse is just back from Belmopan, where having looked at the document, could barely contain his disgust.
Godwin Hulse, Senator
“It’s atrocious. I mean it’s just absolutely outrageous to my mind. I cannot see how any, any government and particularly the Prime Minister as the chief leader of the nation if you like and the chief custodian if you like of the assets of the people could ever pen a document of that nature.”
Stewart Krohn
“Be more specific please.”
Godwin Hulse
“Well I picked out four clauses that I thought-in addition to what the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday. First of all, the guarantee is open ended: there is no limit to it. I mean, it is any amount that the bank determines is owed at any time by Universal; that is the first ridiculous thing. The second thing is it is not in substitution to the D.F.C. guarantee and other collateral, it is in addition to, it is in addition to. Thirdly, the bank does not have to exhaust any of its other assets, any efforts to collect on any of the assets; it goes straight to the guarantee. And fourth, any amount, any account that the bank said is owed is what the government is bound to. Please man, how could we ever do something like that? And when you do get a chance to read it in detail, you will see what I mean. I just think that first of all there is no authority to sign it, so as far as I am concerned there is no guarantee, there is a paper signed. It can only be guaranteed if the National Assembly approves and I will stick with that forever because that is the legal position. There is a clear separation in the constitution between the Legislative and the Executive; the Executive proposes and recommends, the Legislature approves and no other institution can commit the funds of the people of Belize but the National Assembly.”
Stewart Krohn
“The Prime Minister says that the Finance and Audit Reform Act was not enacted until after that was signed, so there is no obligation to bring it to the Legislature. What do you say?”
Godwin Hulse
“Absolutely rubbish. The Finance and Audit Act does not give the Legislature and additional powers. The Finance and Audit Act emanates from the constitution. I was the one who was part of the architect of that and chair the negotiations. It stems from the constitution, all it did is flesh it out, but the provisions were always there. All the Finance and Audit Act did was give some timing to certain things and some methods of certain things, but the principle that the National Assembly must approve is always and was always there. So the Finance and Audit Reform Act is nothing new, it simply fleshes out how you should behave.”
Stewart Krohn
“As a Senator and civic activist, what’s the next step?”
Godwin Hulse
“Well I think that two things should happen. I think that each and every elected representative in that House should stand up and give their statement on this guarantee. And I want—and this is very important, I would want to hear each and every representative saying I support this and I am prepared to expend the funds of the people to Belize to settle their debt, which has benefited us in no way, over and above spending it on the people of Belize and then going back to the people and asking them to be returned to Belmopan. I would want to see that. As far as I am concerned, I think the Prime Minister has perhaps lost the confidence of his Cabinet if he cannot get his Cabinet to support this document. And so far I don’t know if he has, I don’t know if they have even seen it and if they have they should say so.”
And while public discussion continues over the guarantee, the P.M. confirmed that negotiations are ongoing to settle the U.H.S. debt of approximately thirty-three million dollars with the Belize Bank. There is also the matter of the monies owed to the Development Finance Corporation. According to Musa, the original principal lent to U.H.S. was four million dollars and while efforts will be made to recover that sum, his government is considering a proposal to waive the accrued interest on the loan, estimated at some eight million dollars.
