Senate Witness Says He’s Never Seen the Definitive Agreement

Leroy Almendarez

As we’ve mentioned, today was the first time that the Executive Director of BELTRAIDE, Doctor Leroy Almendarez, was called before the Senate Special Select Committee to give evidence. News Five spoke with him as he exited the National Assembly Building following his testimony.

Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE
“My role as the Executive Director of BELTRAIDE and the role and what we do with respect to investments, this is the kind of information they wanted to get out in terms of process, and I trust that whatever we discuss, you know, really aided the process in terms of the guidelines that are set  and how investors should ensure that those guidelines and are complied with by fulfilling, you know, those different areas in the case of that C.S.S.C.I guidelines. There are seven different steps and if you don’t satisfy the steps, then it simply means that your project could have been delayed.”

Marion Ali

“You said during the hearing that for you the definitive agreement doesn’t exist. Did you mean back then or no, that it doesn’t exist?”

Dr. Leroy Almendarez

“No, I meant as far as I know, it doesn’t exist. I never saw one. I was never exposed to one or anything like that. So as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t exist.”

Marion Ali
“Former Minister, Erwin Contreras, did he ever reach you, communicate with you, call you at any point to discuss anything regarding that agreement?”

Dr. Leroy Almendarez
“No, there was no conversation. My interaction interactions primarily were with the chair of the cabinet’s, um, subcommittee on investment.”

Marion Ali

“So if I were to ask you, based on what you’ve heard of the agreement itself, would you be able to share with us what you think of the document? Is it a fair document?”

Dr. Leroy Almendarez

“Well, I haven’t really seen or read it, so it’s hard for me to say, but all I can say is where the process is concerned that any application that goes through a certain process, there’s a determination afterwards. I mean, once we have identified that, yes, it’s legitimate, it’s within the priority, it has economic impact, it will create employment and, you know, whatever request is made and the assessments are done with respect to benefit costs to the country in terms of its impact, but it would not have exceeded anything that was within that application that left with, you know. So with respect to the definitive agreement, like I said, I haven’t read it, so I don’t know what’s included in there and I don’t know what would have been granted to those principles, had that thing materialized and then really become effective. So I really don’t know.”