Registry deal was bad but not corrupt, says P.M.

He kept away from the media for over a week, saying he didn’t want to talk about the past…but the scandal surrounding the privatisation and re-nationalisation of the Companies Registry has occupied a large part of the nation’s political present, not to mention this administration’s future. So today, piggy-backing on a routine photo op with the visiting Ambassador of the European Union, Prime Minister Said Musa met the press, or at least faced a barrage of pointed questions from the news directors of Belize’s two major television stations. With only a few alterations for the sake of time, here’s how it went this afternoon in Belmopan.

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Because I was advised that legally the Minister of Finance no longer can waive stamp duty, so it had to be paid in. In the past, a Minister of Finance could waive stamp duty or any tax for that matter, but we?ve made many reform measures, put in many reform measures in place and no longer can a minister or the Minster of Finance for that matter, waive tax, waive stamp duty. It has to be done?it could either have been done through a resolution by Parliament or as we did it by paying it in.?

Jules Vasquez, News Director, Channel 7
?So actually the Government of Belize agreed to pay taxes for a British billionaire??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?No, the Government of Belize did not agree to pay taxes for any millionaire.?

Jules Vasquez
?The taxes were paid on behalf of??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Oh, you mean the?that was the nature of the agreement. It all depends on the agreement you make. Sometimes the purchaser pays stamp duty, sometimes the vendor. It depends on the agreement you make.?

Stewart Krohn, News Director, Channel 5
?But Prime Minister, you just said that an act of the legislature could have waived the stamp duty. Why did you not seek an act of the legislature which you control absolutely??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Well, we could have gone that route, but I am saying we did it this way to facilitate a quick process… knowing full well that it would have come back to government. The intention was from day one that it should have been paid in and paid back out.?

Stewart Krohn
?Were you aware at the time that seventy percent of that money would have stayed within the privatised Companies Registry??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?No, that was never the intention and I was not aware of that. The clear intention was that the money was simply to be paid in and paid back out to government.?

Jules Vasquez
?Sir, what did you know and when did you know it as regards the contract with the Belize Companies Registry Limited and its parent, BELIPO??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?The proposal to outsource the Companies Registry as well as the Intellectual Property Company Registry, was discussed and approved by Cabinet. Like in every other type arrangement, the actual contract itself was not discussed or approved by Cabinet, it?s left to the ministry to work that out, and this is what happened in this case. And there?s nothing extraordinary about that, this is how it?s normally done.?

Jules Vasquez
?But you are aware that there?s a revenue breakdown and that you do not get all the revenue.?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I was aware and I must tell you that in all sincerity my understand was that the fees, because it was a management arrangement, that the fees were split in that mode in order to ensure that the managers of the system could manage the thing properly.?

Jules Vasquez
?Did you find the eighty-twenty breakdown offensive, excessive??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I did, and that?s why the Cabinet took a decision. I brought it to Cabinet and we took the decision to terminate the arrangement.?

Jules Vasquez
?Do you think the then Attorney General acted wrongly or unconscionably to have negotiated such a contract??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I believe that you can, with twenty-twenty hindsight, review anything and find faults with it. I don?t see what?s the point of my going down that road, give an opinion about it. Clearly my position on this thing is clearly reflected in the decision that I took to bring it to Cabinet and to get the Cabinet to terminate the arrangement.?

Stewart Krohn
?Prime Minister, you said the reason you ordered the contract with BELIPO broken was your being appalled at the unconscionability of the contractual arrangement. But as you are well aware, very serious allegations have been raised by none other than the Leader of the Opposition and he has unequivocally stated that the arrangement was a corrupt one in which two members of your Cabinet were silent partners in the Companies Registry arrangement. Was part of your reason for cancelling that contract some perhaps belief that maybe his allegations are true, and in a broader sense, what is your reaction to those allegations??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?When the matter was brought to my attention that somehow this money was paid in and had not been paid back to government, the two million plus, I asked to see the contract. It was presented to me, I was appalled by the terms of the contract, and I further investigated the ownership of this company and the records showed that there were two principal owners of this BELIPO company; namely Mr. David Jenkins and Mr. Denys Barrow. As far as I am concerned, they are the owners of the company. They are the ones that when we sought to settled the matter, that negotiations were held with subsequently to settle the matter. The former Attorney General and minister has assured me that he is not a shareholder in the company and I am prepared to accept him at his word.?

Jules Vasquez
?Sir we know as a matter of record that he is not a shareholder, his name is not in the paper. But it still does not answer the question of whether A) you think he was a beneficiary of receipts from that company through a secret arrangement, and secondly, the Leader of the Opposition has said that his brother, a sitting judge on the Court of Appeal for Eastern Caribbean States, has told him that these two are silent shareholders in the company. Is the Leader of Opposition lying about what his brother told him??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I don?t know what his brother told him, you?re asking…

Jules Vasquez
?He is saying what his brother told him.?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?He is saying his brother told him. You are going from that to saying that his brother did tell him. I am saying I don?t know what his brother might have told him. What I am telling you is I am not accusing anybody of lying. All I?m saying is I have been assured that the minister, or indeed the former minister in this case, that they were not beneficiaries in this company and I have not evidence to suggest otherwise.?

Stewart Krohn
?Prime Minister, would it not bother you that the Leader of the Opposition would implicate his own brother, prejudice a fantastically rising judicial career just for?it would have to be a political stunt. Does it not bother you that the allegations that he is making very much stand a chance of being true??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I am not sure that the Leader of the Opposition was trying to implicate his brother. His brother was implicated in the sense that the records show that his brother was a party to this whole thing.?

Stewart Krohn
?Prime Minister let me clarify. He has unequivocally stated that his brother was involved in a corrupt business arrangement. It was corrupt because two ministers of your government were silent partners in his company. That is the allegation. In making that allegation he hung his brother out to dry, so to speak.?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Yes indeed.?

Stewart Krohn
?The fact that he would do that, does that not disturb you or cause you to maybe want to look further into the allegations?”

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I find it very disturbing that he did, as the Leader of the Opposition and as Dean Barrow, as a person, saw it necessary to hang out his brother to dry. I mean, I am not too sure that I would have characterised the arrangement as corrupt. He did, those are his words. He might have his reasons; I don’t know what they are.?

Jules Vasquez
?Sir, did you authorize Mr. Joe Waight or Mr. Gian Ghandi?were they authorised to come up with a settlement deed in which it said that the Attorney General had acted illegally, unconstitutionally, and in a fashion that was repugnant to the laws of Belize??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I authorised Mr. Ghandi to sit down along with Mr. Joe Waight, with Mr. David Jenkins, and I think it might have been Mr. Denys Barrow, I am not sure about that part, but certainly with Mr. David Jenkins, to negotiate a settlement of this matter in which the Government would have no legal obligation to pay damages for the alleged unilateral termination or breach of contract, as they were alleging. In the course of which, I gather they were working on several drafts. They were, as I understand it, the company people were putting forward their strongest case so that they could claim damages. The government in turn, as I understand it, was putting forward its strongest case and no more than that. The point is that that draft was never approved by me. What has been approved by me, as Minister of Finance, is simple text that recited that fact that there is a dispute between the parties and that the parties have agreed to settle with the Government, not going back beyond the eighteenth of October and the company in turn not claiming any compensation from the government for the termination of the contract.”

Jules Vasquez
?Sir, do you regret the language in that settlement deed??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?It was not my language; I don?t have anything to regret.?

Jules Vasquez
?But you regret that you gave an instruction to one of your…?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?As I understand it, and I will repeat, as the lawyer for the government he was putting forward his strongest case so as to avoid?in other words it was special pleadings to avoid the government being sued. Because at that stage when they were negotiating, the probability existed that the Government would have faced a lawsuit for breach of contract.?

Jules Vasquez
?Sir, are you prepared to disclose the terms of the IMMARBE?the person who signed the contract, the former attorney general Godfrey Smith, has said that he fashioned these off the IMMARBE contract, off the Belize Offshore Companies Register, and that this is in fact very similar to those. Are you prepared to disclose the terms of those and to say that those are not the as this is, unconscionable??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I don?t have any problem with disclosing that document. In fact, I suspect you might have it already Jules.?

(Laughter)

Jules Vasquez
?I don?t, but do you know the terms of those??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I don?t remember it, no I don?t.?

Jules Vasquez
?Because if those are similar, it would seem a rather cold and calculating deed to pounce on the person who drafted this, if it?s off ?model legislation.?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?I can?t disagree with you.?

Stewart Krohn
?Prime Minister, could you explain the process by which that original two and a quarter million dollar cheque was requisitioned and given to the Companies Registry? You?ve already said you thought it was going to be an in an out, but how was it that you specifically ordered, it was Joe Waight who had made the request right??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Yes.?

Stewart Krohn
?Who asked Joe Waight to cut the cheque??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?When it was presented to me, that this was they, if you like, the way to handle this matter other than a delay in going to parliament. It was suggested yes that we write a cheque, pay it into the Companies Registry and it would in turn pay it back to government. And that was the clear?I can sit here and speak with absolute sincerity and say that was the intention of the whole spirit of the thing and that was what we intended should have happened.?

Stewart Krohn
But you signed off on that.?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Yes.?

Stewart Krohn
?That was you, as Minister of Finance said, cut these guys a check with the whole expectation that it was just going to be…?

Prime Minister Said Musa
?That is correct.?

Jules Vasquez
?Sir, is there a justification for why Michael Ashcroft should not have to pay stamp duties? Why should he be made exempt from it??

Prime Minister Said Musa
?Well all I would say is that here was a gentlemen who once owned the company, the shares, the government persuaded him to sell, and then in he in turn now is buying back shares that he once owned. And it was felt that really why should he have been pressed into paying stamp duty again?in fact I am not even sure if they paid the first time?and certainly when Mr. Prosser bought the shares stamp duty was not paid, I believe it was waived in that case. So in other words, it?s nothing unusual that took place. In other words it was a waiver, just that we did it this way by paying in and paying out.?

No doubt, the Prime Minister’s words will not be the last ones uttered on this subject.