78 million US dollars - that's how much the Government of Belize has to pay the Ashcroft Alliance, and Belmopan only has ten days to come up with it. That's the decision of Caribbean Court of Justice handed down today in the final case to settle the full compensation for the acquisition of BTL.
It's a significant loss for the government, both tactically and in terms of hard currency - and you'll hear from the Prime Minister shortly. But, first to the decision which was handed down via teleconference from the CCJ Headquarters in Port of Spain at 9:00 this morning.
The court was asked to determine, basically, whether roughly 160 million dollars that the Ashcroft Alliance through its companies, named Dunkeld and the Employees Trust claimed as legal expenses were justified. That figure comes out of the overall BTL settlement in 2015, but it's an amount that was set aside - what is called The Restricted Amount. This is the amount arising from the infamous Accommodation Agreement.
Now, to be clear, the first half of the overall settlement was paid last year - and that's done with. This, now, is a decision to determine what happens with the second half, how much of it must be paid in US currency, and how much is in Belize dollars.
That's because the government had originally said that this Restricted Amount would be put in a trust in Belize dollars and spent on charitable projects - after the Ashcroft Alliance took out its expenses.
Well those expenses - all in US dollars - turned out to be almost all of the Restricted Amount - and Government cried foul. The Barrow Administration went to the CCJ arguing that it was exorbitant and unjustified. But, again, because of the poorly worded settlement deed, the Court did not find in favor of the government. CCJ Justice Hayton said that the audit of expenses provided by Ashcroft's Dunkeld and the Worker's Trust were justified:
Mr. Justice David Hayton, CCJ
"The larger the amount of Dunkeld liabilities and Trust liabilities, the greater will be the US dollar payment to the claimants, and less will be available in Belize Dollars for the people of Belize. Unfortunately the settlement made no provision as to how these liabilities would be determined. Ideally there should have been an express provision for such liabilities to be determined by an expert auditor agreed upon by the parties with agreed terms of reference. No aspersions have been cast by the government of Belize on the professional competence and integrity of the international firm which had audited the actual liabilities incurred in connection with the compulsory acquisition. There's nothing to suggest any fresh independent audit would produce different results. So it would serve no useful purpose to order a fresh audit."
"So the court orders the financial secretary on or before November the tenth, 2017, to pay Dunkeld the amount of US dollars 62 million 849 thousand, 799 and 23 cents ($62,849,799.23) representing 78,299,947.26 in US dollars."
To be clear, the Government of Belize was ordered to pay Dunkeld $62, million 849 thousand 799 US dollars and the Employees Trust another 15 million 314 thousand US dollars - bringing the total to just over 78 million US dollars.
Notably, the court levied no interest and awarded no costs.
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