Recological Sues G.O.B. Over Commerce Bight and Wins
Dean Barrow
Earlier today, the High Court handed down a decision in respect of a claim against the Government of Belize that was brought on behalf of Recological Systems Limited. In November 2020, prior to the general elections, Recological entered into an agreement with the Belize Port Authority, and into a lease agreement with the Minister of Transport and NEMO, allowing Recological to develop and operate the Commerce Bight Port as a cargo facility. When the Briceño administration took over, that agreement was canceled and the principal for Recological filed suit. Representing the company is Senior Counsel Dean Barrow.
Dean Barrow, Attorney-at-Law
“Recological had been given a rental agreement for the Commerce Bight Port‘s physical property by the Belize Port Authority. Now while that was done maybe a month or so before the last elections, it was something that was negotiated for a year and a half. So it wasn’t as though this just came suspiciously out of the blue. In addition to the rental agreement, the Minister of Ports had granted Recological a lease of the port which in effect was a license to operate the services at the port. So Recological had two agreements, the rental agreement for the physical property and the license or lease agreement with the minister for him to be able to provide port services to operate the physical property as a going port. He entered into possession and began doing land clearing and developing the place because we‘d not had a functioning port at Commerce Bight certainly in living memory, I don‘t know that ever in history there was a functioning port. When government changed he continued but there were permits that he needed, or approvals that he needed as, the principal is Mr. Paul Martin, but the government said, “hold on, we want to review this thing.” and ultimately they told him, “You can‘t, we‘ll take this away.” And they went to parliament and there was actually a motion that was put up by the government moved by either Zabaneh or perhaps Rodwell Ferguson, was minister at the time and they got the National Assembly to disapprove the two agreements, the rental agreement and the license and Mr. Martin and Recological came to me and I said, but that‘s absolutely improper. The National Assembly, or the House of Representatives, can disapprove the contracts but that disapproval is illegal in terms of the interference of rights of Recological under the contract and we went to court.”
According to Barrow, an expert will be brought in to assist with determining the cost in damages to Recological. It is expected that compensation for the cancellation of the contract will be significant since it was a thirty year lease agreement.
