Government is preparing for another battle with the Ashcroft Alliance in the Caribbean Court of Justice. As we've been reporting it's for the legal costs arising from the settlement of the BTL acquisition. The Alliance put those costs at 95 million US dollars, and government says that's way, way too high. So they've taken the case to the CCJ, and it was supposed to argue in July, but that has now been set back to October.
Today the Attorney General discussed the case, and we asked if the meter in the interest keeps running while the months tick away waiting for the case to come up to trial:...
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"When they first put their amount which was 200 million dollars or some ridiculous figure than that, we ask for justification of that figure and if you have audited reports, audited financials and you are saying my bill is 200 million dollars for certain things, then where are your receipts? Where are your whatever documentation you have to back up that. They refused to provide that to the government of Belize. So I don't know if they were expecting that they would just pick an arbitrary figure 200 million dollars and expect us to just pay. Absolutely not."
"Yes, it is before the CCJ. It was supposed to be initially heard in July, but time ran out on both sides. The court is on recess and so it will happen sometime around October when they will hear the matter and make a decision as to the quantum of money that is due justifiably to the Ashcroft Alliance for the acquisition."
Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"Sir, is there any concern or is there any interest accruing on this 95 million dollars that they claim they are owed?"
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"I would say no. But like I say that will be part of the argument that will be made to the CCJ. I know for a fact that certain monies were put aside to say look we believe that we do not owe any more than this amount. We put it in an account and we have always told them you can go and retrieve that money. So, based on that alone and without saying any more I can't see how the Ashcroft Alliance can claim interest."
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