G.O.B. clarifies airport arbitration
Late last week, a story first appearing in the Amandala and later, circulated in the local media, recounted the details of a deal gone sour between the Government of Belize and the consulting arm of Lufthansa Airlines over management of the country’s sole international airport. According to the report, the German-based company was seeking an arbitrated award from G.O.B. for an estimated thirty-three million U.S. dollars for alleged breaches of a management contract signed in 2000 for the Philip Goldson International Airport. In response to those allegations, today the Government of Belize, through the Press Office, sought to “clarify” the account, stating that Belmopan has never been engaged in an agreement with Lufthansa or any Los Angeles branch of Lufthansa. G.O.B. does admit that it signed a deal with a locally registered company, Newco Limited, in November 2002. Newco, according to the Press Office release, was owned by several former employees of Lufthansa Consulting. The release states that that contract was terminated in October 2003 when Newco could not come up with the money to implement promised projects and apparently because: “G.O.B. considered that serious misrepresentations were made with respect to the role of Lufthansa Consulting and others in the project. The G.O.B. had relied heavily on the representations of prominent roles that Lufthansa and others would be playing in investing in the project and in the management of the airport.”
While Belmopan is trying to throw cold water on the newspaper account, one local journalist is sticking to her story. According to Amandala reporter Adele Ramos, she procured her information from the Office of the Prime Minister, citing a statement on November seventh 2003 in which Belmopan announced that it had concluded an agreement with “a consortium led by the Lufthansa Consulting Group operating out of Los Angeles, California.”
But while G.O.B. plays the name game in Belize, the wheels of an arbitration hearing supervised by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law are in motion. Newco is claiming it didn’t get enough time to make good on its promises; G.O.B. is saying it gave the group plenty of extensions. Belize’s appointed arbitrator is Dr. Albert Fiadjoe, a professor of law at the University of the West Indies. Newco’s choice is unknown but they are being represented in Belize by the law firm of Glenn D. Godfrey and company.
Since severing ties with Newco, the Government has entered into a management contract with the Belize Airport Concession Company Limited, a consortium of local and foreign investors, to expand and develop the facilities and infrastructure at the P.G.I.A.
