P.U.P. Says Arbitration Award is the Cost of Barrow’s Arrogance

The Prime Minister appears to be deeply impressed with the four hundred million dollar arbitration award, but the P.U.P. is not. In a release issued late this evening the Party claimed that it is appalled by the final figures released which they say are worse than even they expected. According to the release, “Including the payment of ninety-seven million dollars to B.C.B. last September, G.O.B. will have had to pay over five hundred and fifty million dollars for its appropriation of B.T.L. in 2009 – a company that is now not even worth a hundred million dollars. More than half a Billion Dollars to be paid to one man, Lord Ashcroft, is a result of the Prime Minister’s arrogance.”   To make the payment, the P.U.P. claims, the Prime Minister will have to drain the country’s foreign reserves and turn to the Central Bank to print money. The release continues to state that, “the Prime Minister did not have to appropriate B.T.L.  He could have used the PUC to regulate the utility properly. We point out also that the Prime Minister could have appropriated the Company and managed it properly. Instead his unqualified son Anwar Barrow was placed at the helm and now the company has been run into the ground.”   In closing, the P.U.P. refutes the assertion of the Prime Minister that this is a victory for the government and people of Belize, claiming that rather, it is an unbearable burden.