NTUCB tells its rep. to vote against SSB potential investment in BTL

dylan reneau

The investment of social security funds, some fifty million dollars, for the purchase of BTL shares, is not getting support. Aside from Digicel Caribbean, government is urging the Social Security Board to buy in but the prospectus will not be available until October fifteenth. The Chamber of Commerce on Thursday said it could not support the investment without due diligence, they are joined by the National Trade Union Congress of Belize. The NTCUB’s representative sits on the investment committee of the SSB and when she voted against the investment, fire and brimstone rained on her from the government party organs.  According to NTUCB President, Dylan Reneau, Lorelei Westby was mandated not to vote in favor of the motion.  The reason he says is that there was not sufficient information presented to the NTUCB for it to make a sound decision on the matter.

Dylan Reneau, President, National Trade Union Congress of Belize

“We’ve gotten some, the investment unit of the Social Security Board but the critical information that we’ve asked about we’ve not gotten satisfactory answers; the prospectus which would tell us what will be the share price and how much the fifty million would be worth.  How many, what percentage of the company we would get for that and another information that the prospectus would have in there.  We have not received any indication because we know that BTL is in telecommunication and VOIP is an emerging technology that people can use to call for free via the use of the internet.  We asked whether there’s any intention to change legislation to make VOIP, to liberate VOIP which would impact on BTL’s profitability.  We haven’t gotten a legitimate response to that.  We’ve also asked about the litigation being pursued by Ashcroft and how that would impact this investment.  Certainly we have not gotten the type of response to that question.  Lastly, the issue of the ten million dollars that Social Security is already exposed through Sunshine Holdings.  Remember Sunshine had gotten ten million from SSB, ten million from the government and twenty million from Belize Bank to purchase shares quote on quote for the Belize Telemedia or BTL Employee Trust.  We’ve asked about that situation whether purchasing the shares which were taken from Ashcroft which was a part of this Sunshine deal if we wouldn’t be assuming our ten million dollar debt.  So those questions need to be answered and we are concerned too because you will recall that we represent the workers of BCWU and we’ve had this situation back and forth with government.  In fact this government had supported the idea of having worker participation in the company when they were in opposition and since they’ve taken over the shares over a year now not much has been done to try and sure up that position and ensure that that is done.”

The Trade Union Congress says it supports any investment opportunity which can potentially improve the viability and sustainability of the Social Security Fund but it must adhere to its commitment to its trustees by allowing full disclosure.