Barrow lambastes Smith; criticises brother Denys
It once seemed that Minister of Tourism, Foreign Affairs and Information Godfrey Smith, had a skin of Teflon. He shrugged off a minor scandal involving the awarding of a contract to his brother, emerged unscathed from the G-Seven rebellion and was riding a wave of prime ministerial support that earned him the post of deputy party leader and made him an early favourite to one day succeed Said Musa at the top of the P.U.P. Today, however, Smith’s future looks somewhat less stellar. Although he has denied any wrongdoing in the scandal over the privatised Companies Registry, Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow has consistently accused Smith of being a silent partner in the Registry who stood to gain hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars from Government’s unnecessary payment of stamp duties. Today, based on a document revealed by the website, Freebelize.org, Barrow called for Smith to resign, saying that he not only lied about his ties to the company but also lied when he said the privatisation had the approval of Cabinet.
Dean Barrow, leader of the Opposition
?Yesterday we came into possession of a settlement deed that Government is proposing so that they can come to some agreement with the operators of the privatised Registry. And that settlement deed sets out Government?s position and that settlement deed makes clear that Godfrey Smith, who executed the contracts, did so without any lawful authority. That is the clearest possible proof coming from Government itself that Smith lied when he said on Friday that he had taken the matter to Cabinet and that he had secured Cabinet?s approval and authority.?
Stewart Krohn
?Of course the document that you are citing is really a draft settlement deed, it is signed by one side, but it?s not been signed on the other, so if it never gets signed in this form, couldn?t Godfrey Smith say, well this was just a proposal and any lawyer knows that you make all kinds of proposals to make an aggrieved party happy. But if that?s not the final document, does it really carry any weight??
Dean Barrow
?Absolutely, because the Government has signed off on the document. It is now for the Registry or the Registry owners to accept. If they don?t accept that?s fine, but the document contains Government?s position as in fact signified by the signature of Joe Waight, acting under authority of the Government and therefore of the Prime Minister himself, since Joe Waight is in the Ministry of Finance. So there can be no disputing that that is Government?s official position. Whether that position finds its way into a document that?s signed by both sides or not is hardly relevant. How can Government or Godfrey Smith now say that in fact Godfrey Smith did have lawful authority when they have reduced to writing the clear position that he did not and caused the Financial Secretary with the full legal weight of the Government behind him to sign off on that? It?s not going to fly.?
Stewart Krohn
?Let me step back a little bit. Is it that you are saying that as Attorney General Godfrey Smith in fact ran a rouge operation and created a company that you have already alleged that he already had a financial interest in, he has denied that, but you are saying that he used his ministerial authority to create a company that he had a financial interest in without the knowledge of Cabinet and in fact acted illegally to benefit himself??
Dean Barrow
?I am saying precisely that. I am saying that it is not just what this document sets out with extremely clarity, I am saying that at the time I discovered what was happening and took it to the National Assembly, to the House of Representatives and exposed it, and denounced it. A senior minister of government took me aside afterwards and confessed to me that Cabinet did not know, Cabinet had not approved it. Of course I?m not going to call his name, this was in the confines of the House of Representatives corridors and he clearly did not speak so that I could publicly attribute those remarks to him. But that is a fact. I also know that when other members of the Belize Bar Association found out, particularly about the Registry, they were upset and I know of a senior counsel who called the Prime Minister to complain and that the Prime Minister told that senior counsel that he and Cabinet had not known. So, in the normal course I could not have come forward with only those reports, those of the conversations that I had had with a senior minister and that a colleague had had with the Prime Minister. But with the proposed settlement deed now, signed off by Joe Waight with the authority of Government, everything has fallen into place and in my view Godfrey Smith is well and truly skewered.?
Stewart Krohn
?Politically, do you think this is the decapitation of Godfrey Smith, probably the most rising star in the People?s United Party??
Dean Barrow
?I don?t see how it can be otherwise. I don?t see how in the face of this the Prime Minister cannot act. And remember that there are those in Cabinet, as well as those outside Cabinet in the P.U.P. who will feel that this is a development too long delayed. To put it into plain words, there are those in Cabinet who want his head. And I think the document now and the evidence now has played right into their hands, so the combination of his own colleagues who will want to see him go and the pressure of public opinion, because in my view this document will unleash a firestorm of protest, will mean that Godfrey Smith will have to go.?
Stewart Krohn
?This would all be absolutely fantastic for Dean Barrow and the United Democratic Party were it not for one very peculiar thing, and that is the involvement of your brother as there is no other way to put it than to say that your brother Denys was, euphemistically speaking, a partner in crime in this whole incident.?
Dean Barrow
?There is no other way to put it. It is something Stewart that has given me a great deal of grief, but I continue to make the point that he is entirely his own man. He was never any official of the United Democratic Party, and that while his involvement is wrong and extremely unfortunate, and it to be condemned, that cannot be laid at the door of the United Democratic Party. This was an arrangement conceived by ministers of the P.U.P., this was an arrangement executed by ministers of the P.U.P. This was an arrangement that benefited those ministers and Denys Barrow, and in no wise had anything to do with the U.D.P. and in no wise benefited the U.D.P. This was an arrangement that could never have happened when the United Democratic Party was in office and Dean Barrow was the attorney general.?
Stewart Krohn
?Assuming that what you?re saying is not only true, but something you strongly believe in, where does this leave Denys Barrow as, I believe, a sitting justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and his professional future??
Dean Barrow
?Well he is a justice on the Court of Appeal.?
Stewart Krohn
?I?m sorry, Court of Appeal.?
Dean Barrow
?He has tenure, he is not an acting justice, he is officially appointed and I think he serves until he is sixty-five if that is his desire. He will also make the point that he was not in any conflict of interest position, that he was not a minister of government, that he was a private citizen and that it was perfectly okay for him to get involved in what he saw as a straight business deal. So, I don?t imagine that there will be any kind of fallout in the Eastern Caribbean. Here at home of course I think that public opinion would not agree with the way he will put his case and without a doubt he will?in fact I think he already has?suffered the slings and arrows of the Belizean public.?
Stewart Krohn
?You just referred to this as what he thought was a straight business deal. In fact though, had you not previously alleged that with Denys? full knowledge the ownership of that company was divided between himself and silent partners, one of whom was Godfrey Smith, so it?s not quite a straight business deal.?
Dean Barrow
?Oh no, I am saying that is his case; that is not my position at all. You are perfectly right. I went on record from the moment I found out to say that it was a corrupt deal and that all those involved in it, by extension as a matter of logic, had themselves to be corrupt. That is my position, but I am just saying that he clearly will wish to make a different case.?
Stewart Krohn
?Does the fact that Dean Barrow, aspiring Prime Minister pretty much hung his brother out to dry, indicate that Dean Barrow as Prime Minister would take that same no-nonsense approach to corruption within his government??
Dean Barrow
?I hope that that is the clear impression that people have. I also point to my record when I was in government Stewart, that?s why I said to you earlier, you can never find any sort of deal like this taking place, you cannot find any instance of Denys Barrow, or any other close family member of mine benefiting from anything that was engineered by me or by my government during the two terms that I was office. So I think the contrast in fact makes my case completely, this could only happen with the P.U.P. and Godfrey Smith as Attorney General, or some other P.U.P. Attorney General. It could never have happened when Dean Barrow was Deputy Prime Minister and Attorney General.?
According to the draft settlement deed, the former operators of the registry return the two point two million dollars in stamp duty paid by G.O.B. and relinquish control of the business without any compensation. Prime Minister Said Musa has declined to answer News Five’s questions about the privatisation of the Companies Registry and its subsequent re-nationalisation.