Second D.F.C. report goes to P.M. Tuesday

Fifteen weeks after her co-chair submitted his report, tonight we understand that Merlene Bailey Martinez will hand deliver her set of findings from the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation to Prime Minister Said Musa tomorrow morning. According to Martinez, “a great weight lifted” when she finally completed her report. And while we in the media have been eagerly awaiting the co-chair’s conclusions, Bailey Martinez maintains that because she was appointed by the P.M., her report must go to him and only he can decide whether and when to release it to the public. We note that when Justice Herbert Lord submitted his report on July twelfth, the Prime Minister’s office posted the document on the Government’s website. However attorneys acting for Glenn Godfrey quickly moved to obtain an injunction, alleging damage to Godfrey’s reputation by a “biased” report. Belmopan later pulled the document but most of the public had already downloaded it. Perhaps in anticipation of similar reaction from others investigated, today Martinez confirmed to us that “in the interest of fairness”, she has written letters to a number of persons warning them that her report contains critical comments about their involvement with the D.F.C. The D.F.C. Commission of Inquiry was appointed by Prime Minister Said Musa in March 2005 as part of an historic agreement negotiated between Belize’s labour movement and the Government following a series of protests and strikes that affected power, telecommunications and water supply. The first public hearings of the Commission began last August and after several bouts of legal wrangling, the last was held in March. With advice from her legal counsel Lois Young Barrow, during the televised hearings Bailey Martinez led the questioning of borrowers, past employees of the corporation and government officials, including the Minister formerly responsible for the D.F.C., Ralph Fonseca. Under oath, the witnesses testified about the financial affairs of the corporation including the administrative procedures used to approve, monitor and recover public funds provided to borrowers.