S.S.B. Manager: St. James did not perform

Last to face the music this afternoon was General Manager of the Belize Social Security Board, Narda Garcia. In what was also her second appearance before the committee, Garcia told the panel that when she listened on her car radio to Glenn Godfrey’s June ninth testimony she “ran off the road.”

Narda Garcia, General Manager, S.S.B.
?Yes, I believe that there was misrepresentations, as I think has been cleared by Mr. McMillan in terms of the projects. Mr. Godfrey tried to say that we were aware of that. I have spoken to my colleagues at the D.F.C.; they were here this morning. I have spoken to Mr. McMillan. Myself and Mr. Zetina have gone through again the files and through our memory as best as it can serve. To my recollection and anybody at S.S.B., D.F.C., or BIMCO, we cannot come up to an answer if we knew or if there was any document, any letter telling us that this project has changed.?

Godwin Hulse
?Mr. Godfrey has said categorically that, and you heard it. I?m sorry you ran off the road, I?m glad you didn?t get injured, but Mr. Godfrey said it was your fault, basically meaning the Social Security, they didn?t have the personnel, it was their responsibility totally, St. James was an entity out there, there were other options for St. James. The D.F.C. has no fault at all, none whatsoever… utter nonsense, he says. Mr. Troy Gabb and Mr. Bautista said the D.F.C. is not culpable, they did their due diligence on Social Security, they did what they were supposed to do, it was the Social Security to ensure that the mortgage coming from them were proper. Mr. Campbell from the Central Bank said there no responsibility on the part of the Central Bank with respect to paying funds abroad. Everything met the criteria of the legislation, and also the instructions coming from Social Security to pay to St. James account in Hibernia for further payment to M.H. Financial, they just followed the instructions, which they are required to do as bankers for yourself and the D.F.C. Everybody says the Social Security is responsible for not doing due diligence, for having taken these on, for not having insured, and it is the Social Security to blame. How do you respond to that??

Narda Garcia
?Senator I heard all of them and I will say again that I believe that we did what we had to do as best as we could have done it. At that point in time, certain conditions were not met by some mortgages, and some say their part of the bargain or their side of the equation did not function and that is why we are here today. Because if they would have performed we wouldn?t be here sitting and discussing this whole issue. St. James did not meet their part of the bargain in terms of the mortgage with I.T.L. and W.C.C. In fact, I listened very carefully, on the weekends I am taping the proceedings and I listened to Mr. Godfrey?s and I said, but I.T.L. and W.C.C. did not perform because the collateral was not there, the story about the project being changed etcetera. But then why does Data Pro and Aquarius not perform either? Why not? That is my question. None of the mortgages that were securitised, the ones we categorised as Glenn D. Godfrey mortgages or related group of companies, all of them stopped performing at the same time.?

Absent from today’s session was PU.P. Senator Dickie Bradley. The U.D.P. representative Arturo Roches, has boycotted the hearings from the beginning on orders from his party