Unions receive B.T.L. shares from G.O.B.
They were the subject of much speculation both before and after the sale of majority shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited to Innovative Communication Corporation. But today, Prime Minister Said Musa in one fell swoop lay to rest all the controversy and uncertainty over the fate of the shares belonging to the Public Service and Belize National Teachers Union being held in trust by G.O.B. In fact, when union representatives learnt that the P.M. was about to issue the shares certificate, it caught them so off guard, impromptu consultations had to be conducted in the corridors outside the Prime Minister’s office to decide what they should do. When the unions finally sat down with the Prime Minister, he explained that in the interest of transparency and accountability, government has decided it was time for the Unions to take over management of the shares.
Said Musa, Prime Musa
?Last Friday in the House of Representatives, in answer to a question, I reiterated that the shares were not sold. Today, on behalf of government, I proposed to prove concrete manifestation of this in order to bring to an end once and for all any doubt that anyone may entertain that the shares are available to the unions and that the savings accrued from the dividends are available in the savings bank account at the Treasury.?
?The government has decided that the unions, the management of the unions, should now take on the responsibility of managing the trust funds of these shares. So we have decided to transfer the shares directly into the name of the two unions jointly, the Public Services Union of Belize and the Belize National Teacher?s Union. This in effect will bring to an end government’s trust obligation of holding the shares. It will now be the responsibility of the management of both unions to manage these shares. They and their membership will decide if and when they decide they want to sell, or if they don’t want to sell that is entirely a matter for them.”
?At the end of the financial year March thirty-first, 2004, the B.T.L. share proceeds savings account at the Treasury, savings account number 2780 held at the Government Treasury, maintained a balance of Belize Dollars one million six hundred and thirteen thousand, three hundred and thirty-nine dollars and twenty-six cents. This savings account bears interest at the rate of six percent per annum and a copy of the certified account is attached, which I will be presenting to the presidents of both unions.”
Accepting the shares on behalf of their respective unions were Anthony Fuentes for the Belize National Teachers Union and Dylan Reneau for the Public Service Union. In total, five hundred and sixty-seven thousand, six hundred and sixty-six shares, which includes the original “B” shares and some “C” shares in additional dividends credited towards the shares over the years were handed over to the union this afternoon.
And now that they have the shares in their hands, the leaders of the P.S.U. and B.N.T.U. say they will go back to their membership for consultation on the way forward. While the P.S.U. has not yet decided what it will do with its portion of the shares, Fuentes says his membership at the B.N.T.U. has already earmarked projects to be funded by interests earned from the shares over the years.
Dylan Reneau, President, P.S.U.
?Basically what we are going to do is to ensure that that trust document is registered and signed. We will take the dividends that we have and put in the new account, whatever new account we form, and put the certificate in a safety deposit bank pending any new developments or any decisions with consensus by both unions, P.S.U. and B.N.T.U.?
Anthony Fuentes, President, B.N.T.U.
?What we will be doing, we will be sharing this information with our general membership. As was pointed our earlier at our thirty-fourth annual convention in Orange Walk, our membership gave us the mandate to go to Belmopan to check the documents for ourselves. And after we have checked the documents, we returned back to our membership to share with them what we found out in Belmopan. And today we were given our share certificate along with the amount of dividends that it has accrued, so we will be going back to our membership. The foundation of the organisation is membership.?
Dylan Reneau
?We had gotten a copy of the acquisition document that was circulating and our shares seem to have been captured in that document, so we were of the opinion that there was some undetermined issue. But basically now that we have gotten the shares, we feel quite confident that we can move this process forward.
Prime Minister Musa told News 5 that with the shares now transferred to the unions, he expects that a trust document, currently being finalized, will serve as a check and balance mechanism to ensure that the funds are properly managed.
Prime Minister Said Musa
?The government is taking it on trust today, a different trust that the union has been working on this trust document. We have not yet been handed it, I must confess, but we trust the unions that they will act responsibly and they will make that document available to us. I have been informed by both presidents that the document is virtually complete now, they are just going over the legal wording of it and it will be made shortly available to government.?
