Email

Print

More on that later, but first to the Prime Minister's meeting with Penner. What was it about? Well the PM told the press, it was housekeeping:...

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Talking about housekeeping matters, he hasn't been paid for the month, and of course while he is no longer Minister of state, he is still a member of the National Assembly."

"I had to call the clerk I haven't been able to find my financial secretary who is in Belize City attending meeting, but we dealt particularly with those sorts of housekeeping matters; how he will be paid now i view of his new status and as well since there is, as I understand it, talk by the opposition of trying to trigger the recall mechanism, that absolutely lovely device that the UDP inserted in the constitution. I wanted to find out from him, what his position was and he was quite open in telling me that he continues to serve his people, that, indeed only his constituents can tell him if it is time to go as a member of the house and so that was basically the extent of it."

Reporter
"Has Mr. Penner been instructed not to answer the media's questions? Because when he left just now, we tried to talk to him but he would not give us any comment."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"No, that's entirely another matter for him, in the same way as of course I will always answer the media's questions, as both I think are a personal position and as an official position he in especially in the current circumstances to do otherwise. I can well understand why he might not want at this time to take questions from the media."

"As it is the government and certainly I have said a great deal, about this incident and I continue to repeat that the government acted immediately, the government acted swiftly, the government acted correctly, I will maintain my duty in that regard always. Nobody is trying to give Honorable Penner, a soft landing from the point of view of the government, he is taking his licks and no doubt people will say deservedly so."

"So if in that context he chooses not to say anything for himself, I think perhaps that ought to be respected, in any case people don't have a choice you can't force the man to talk."

Reporter
"What is stopping the police from investigating Mr. Penner?"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"But I never said that it was a criminal matter. I look at the circumstances, as closely and as fairly and as critically as I could and I am satisfied that there is no basis on which any criminal charges could successfully be laid. There is no evidence at all, that could sustain a criminal prosecution against Penner. That is my position and I am telling you that, that position doesn't come about because I am in anyway trying to protect Penner, He has been removed he has been in effect been fired."

"But that rule in terms in the material that was before me when I acted, does not reached a level that can sustain a criminal prosecution."

KREM Reporter
"Sir, additional information has surfaced."

Isani cayetano, reporter Channel 5
"Him or Eric Chan, if he is found to be culpable?"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"In terms of Eric Chan, I don't know where this comes from. Whatever is been said about Eric Chan is utterly anecdotal. There is total there nothing at all by way evidence or material, to suggest any involvement of the part of Eric Chan. I have heard what you have heard, what the media has heard but do you have any evidence at all to say that Eric Chan played any role in this."

"I have my suspicions but again we must act on the basis of evidence in terms of what Hon. Penner did, there where clear actions on his part that were a matter of fact. I have noting with respect to Eric Chan except what I am hearing and that's scuttlebutt. It may well be true but it doesn't arise to the level of anything that is in the slightest degree actionable."