New owner for B.T.L.? U.D.P. names names

The rumours have been making the rounds for weeks and confirmed in concept by the Leader of the Opposition at the last House meeting. But today Dean Barrow and the United Democratic Party took it one step further by offering explicit details of what it claims are government’s plans to facilitate the sale of controlling interest in Belize Telecommunications Limited. According to a press release issued late this evening, the U.D.P. has confirmed that the Belize Government has borrowed over fifty million U.S. dollars to purchase the fifty-one percent ownership in B.T.L. now held by Michael Ashcroft’s Carlisle Holdings. These shares, according to the U.D.P., augmented by the twenty-five percent stake in the company owned by the Belize Social Security Board, will then be resold to controversial U.S. Virgin Island’s based multimillionaire, Jeffrey Prosser. The opposition party is highly critical of the deal because they believe the government offered secret guarantees to the prospective buyer and the withdrawal of the Social Security Board will leave small B.T.L. shareholders defenceless. The U.D.P. also claims that price fixing, to the detriment of consumers, will become the order of the day. The allegations in the press release could not be confirmed this evening, but previously Minister of Finance Ralph Fonseca has stated that it would actively promote the sale of Carlisle’s shares if that would end the impasse between B.T.L. and newly licensed competitor, INTELCO over interconnection rates. As for Jeffrey Prosser, a check of the internet indicates that he is chairman and chief executive officer of Innovative Communications Corporation, the largest privately owned telephone company in the United States. Innovative’s operations include extensive telecom and media holdings in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, and the French Caribbean.