Senator Hulse clarifies his position on nationalization

The Senator spoke to News Five today and said he does not have a problem with any other company related to the Ashcroft group of companies, including Smart, the other telecommunications supplier. Hulse says he does not see how the take-over could be extended to Smart.

Godwin Hulse, Senator
“As far as I know they are a different company, a different business with different licenses operating in their own right. So, I could not see how on earth it could be extended to them. I don’t see how it could be extended to them. The enabling position was so that government could bring an end, if you like, to the continued litigations, fights to collect its taxes, all premise on an accommodation agreement which has nothing to do with Smart whatsoever. In all my presentations in the Senate, I never called Lord Ashcroft’s name. He is a legitimate businessman doing business the way business people do it and he is a smart businessman clearly. We are talking Telemedia—that is the company, that is the entity that is in court—that is the entity that has the Accommodation Agreement; that is the entity that we’re dealing with. Channel Five is a legitimate business house doing business like any other business house and doing a good job. There could be no difficulty with Channel Five. Why would there be any difficulty with the Belize Bank? The Belize Bank is one of Belize’s largest banks doing legitimate business, having a lot of customers, people go there doing transactions. That’s a legitimate business.”