| 2 nights ago, we showed you our interview with Prime Minister Dean Barrow in which he conceded that the final cost of the BTL nationalization is "not cheap". The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has released a first draft of their review of the take-over. It calculates that the Government should pay about 250 million Belize dollars for The Ashcroft Alliance's 45 million shares in BTL, in addition to sums already paid.
That's a hefty price for the Belizean taxpayers, and when Opposition Leader John Briceño was asked about it, he pointed fingers at the Prime Minister. Briceño said that the Barrow Government mismanaged the nationalization simply because the Prime Minister was too proud to settle and pay compensation to the former owners earlier:
Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"I am not surprised as to what has happened. We know that the Prime Minister was held over the barrel and he had no choice, but to accommodate the formers owners of BTL. It is something that we've been saying from the beginning; if you nationalize a company, you need to pay. You cannot behave like a tug. You cannot behave like you will not follows the laws of this country and that is precisely what happened to the government. They have gone to the Caribbean Court of Justice on two occasions; on the first occasion they lost the case and they had to start all over by nationalizing it once again. This time they were going to lose again, but because they did not have the majority or the super majority required under the constitution, they figured that they had to negotiate with the owners. Well the formers are rightfully so, put Mr. Barrow over the barrel. Unfortunately, we the tax payers are going to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars to the former owners of BTL and we have a problem with that. I know that the government is trying to spin-it, to say well it's a victor for us, but when you start to look at everything that we have to pay - the lawyer fees, the interest they have. I mean the government mismanaged this case from day one and because of their incompetence, because of their vindictiveness and spitefulness, the Belizean people are now saddled to pay hundreds of millions of dollars and that is something that Mr. Barrow and his government cannot run away from."
The Government's release on Wednesday evening said, quote, "GOB views this draft decision as a net win for the Government but repeats that this is not the final decision of the Court." End Quote.
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