GOB: B.W.S. knew what they were getting into

Fonseca also commented on the current situation with Belize Water Services. According to the Minister, WASA had some well known problems, but B.W.S. knew it would take several years and substantial investment to turn a profit. Fonseca says G.O.B. is in continuous discussion with B.W.S., but the matter might have to be settled by a third party.

Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Budget Planning

“And this particular company came forward and signed an investment agreement with us that was in plain English, in black and white. And had as many of us up until late in the morning, certainly Mr. Lue and the privatisation crew went for a very rough time. They brought professionals from all over the world to take a look at this thing and did all types of modeling and eventually came up with their model and they signed the agreement. Now since they have been in there, apparently there has been some changes in their company because the people that were down there are no longer there, at least the head honchos. And this new group that they have brought down is taking a very hard line that in fact as far as they are concerned, they didn’t get what they were buying. We have it in black and white. We have a process we have to go through if they want to go through that process.

I have said to them that instead of taking an precipitous action, instead of doing anything crazy, fast, that they should slow down and let’s discuss this thing, and that’s what we’re doing, right up to the end of this month. We’re discussing it on two tracks, one track is to look at the claims that they are making, and the other track is to look at their investment model and to see where things have gone wrong with them. Because it was their investment model that they bought on, which they didn’t show to us. We’re hoping that by the end of November we can get that thing sort out. If not, we’re going to end up in arbitration.”

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