31.1 C
Belize City
Thursday, March 28, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Photo: Students and staff of Stella Maris...

BPD awards 3 officers with Women Police of the Year

Photo: (l-r) Myrna Pena, Carmella Cacho, and...

Suicide on the rise!

Photo: Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator by Charles...

Conteh “blesses” Mark Hulse’s forensic audit!

GeneralConteh “blesses” Mark Hulse’s forensic audit!
It appears that the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has reached another log jam. Bus company owner David Novelo told Amandala this evening that the Novelos will definitely appeal the judgment made today by Dr. Abdulai Conteh, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
 
Novelo and his older brother, Tony, had asked the court to strike out the audit that Mark Hulse, CPA, did for the Commission of Inquiry, by declaring Hulse’s appointment and his entire report “unlawful, null and void.”
 
In this vein, the Novelos had asked the court for a series of declarations, none of which were granted, but the Chief Justice did say that when Forensic Auditor Mark Hulse submitted his report to the Commission of Inquiry and Government without giving the Novelos a chance to respond to certain sections pertaining to them, there was a breach of natural justice.
 
He noted, however, that since the Commission has yet to file its final report, there is still a window of opportunity for the Novelos to give their input on the Hulse report.
 
If they [the Novelo brothers] don’t appear when called to give their side of the story, they will only have themselves to blame, the CJ cautioned.
 
It would seem an easy remedy, then, for the Novelo brothers to testify before the Commission and tell their story, but they had been summoned several times since February, and have not yet testified for varying reasons.
 
The duo had come into the spotlight after their company’s $30 million loan with the DFC—said to be the biggest in the corporation’s history—went into default and the DFC and Atlantic Bank took their company into receivership in 2005. Now David Novelo is arguing that they cannot testify before the Commission of Inquiry if they do not get permission from these receivers – the DFC and Atlantic Bank.
 
And that, he suggested, is not bound to happen, as there are “issues of hostility” between the Novelo brothers and the receivers.
 
David Novelo furthermore stated that he does not see how things can be remedied because one of the Commissioners, Herbert Lord, has already filed his final report.
 
Since February the Novelos have been before the Supreme Court challenging the DFC Commission of Inquiry, Hulse’s appointment and, most recently, his forensic audit submitted on March 2, 2007. The case on which the CJ ruled today was filed in May. The Novelos lost their February case in which they accused Hulse of conflict of interest on the grounds that he did financial consulting for the receivership. But they later appealed. They dropped that appeal to file the current matter.
 
The Novelos got a favorable ruling on only a part of one of the declarations they were seeking. They had asked the court to rule that the Hulse report, as it refers to them, is null and void, and that Hulse breached the laws of natural justice when he did not ask them to comment on his findings.
 
The Chief Justice said that the natural justice claim is the most troubling to him. While he absolutely disagreed with the Novelo brothers on the legality of Mark Hulse’s appointment and audit, he did understand the concern of the Novelo brothers regarding claims in the Hulse report, but not to the extent that he would strike out those portions referring to the Novelos.
 
During the hearing, attorney Elson Kaseke, who represented the Novelos in this matter, pointed specifically to the parts of the Hulse report that he said are “highly prejudicial” to his clients (Sections 4.6.3.27 to 4.6.3.29).
 
The Chief Justice noted that natural justice was not served by not allowing the Novelos to comment.
 
We asked David Novelo this evening what is so offensive to the Novelo family about Hulse’s audit, and he told us that there are several issues, including the claim that they had hired the law firm of Glenn Godfrey, DFC chairman, to do legal work for them. He told us that it was the law firm of W. H. Courtenay that did their legal work.
 
He also told us that his family is particularly concerned that the Hulse audit is claiming that the balance they owe to the DFC is $27.5 million even after the Government sold $8 million in assets, when their balance was $25.6 million when the receivership took over. He said that they can’t understand how they can owe more money after the liquidation of the company.
 
The Chief Justice was very clear in saying today that the Hulse report is only preliminary to the report of the Commission of Inquiry, and the Commission of Inquiry is now minded to give the Novelos an opportunity to respond to the claims in Hulse’s report.
 
He warned that if the Commission of Inquiry into the DFC were to rush to conclusion and complete its report without first affording the Novelos an opportunity to be heard, it may impair the integrity of the Commission and of its report.
 
In June, Mr. Kaseke had withdrawn the portion of his claim that asked the court to grant an injunction against the Hulse report, because at the time of the hearing Hulse had already submitted his final report, so the injunction would have been useless.
 
Last Wednesday the Chief Justice ruled in favor of former DFC chairman, Glenn Godfrey, who had gone to the court for an interim injunction to block the publication of a report filed by Lord, detailing the work of the Commission. The Chief Justice granted the injunction—albeit after the Government had posted the document on its website—but noted that a final report of the Commission cannot be filed by just one of the commissioners.
 
Attorney Lois Young, who represented Mark Hulse in the case brought against him by the Novelos, saw today’s ruling as an unequivocal message to the Commission of what it needs to do before filing a final report.
 
In recent weeks, pressure from the Government on the DFC Commission of Inquiry to file a final report had intensified. The Prime Minister, who had appointed the Commission in March 2005, had gone so far as to allege on national radio that the Commission of Inquiry had “failed to produce” and was dragging on the process for too long as part of a political game.
 
The Chief Justice’s ruling today underscored an appeal made by the second Commissioner, Merlene Bailey-Martinez, that the Commission’s work is indeed incomplete because the Commission has yet to hear from the Novelos, as well as another major borrower – Universal Health Services.
 
She had written to the Prime Minister recently asking him not to accept Lord’s report as final, on the basis that the Commission’s work was incomplete. The CJ’s ruling now bolsters her position.
 
Furthermore, it follows from the proclamations the Chief Justice made today about natural justice concerns, that the Commission will have to look even more carefully at the Hulse report and its own findings to ensure that no other person against whom adverse findings are made can have ammunition to wage another round of court battle.
 
For his part, the Chief Justice has had enough. He himself urged today that the Novelo case would be the last one brought before him with respect of the DFC Commission.
 
We note that Godfrey raised similar natural justice concerns last week when the press interviewed him about the injunction on the Lord report. He claimed that the Commission had heard testimonies “in secret” (that is, in camera) on testimony he had given at a public hearing, but he had not been advised what was said or given a chance to respond.
 
The Chief Justice’s proclamations of last Wednesday and today have underscored two points for the Commission: the first is that no one Commissioner can file a unilateral report as a Commission report and the second is that the Commission’s work could be compromised if it does not give the relevant parties a fair chance to be heard.
 
Kaseke told the press after today’s ruling that, “It has become a norm…that people are not given a chance to natural justice, there is no fairness… The Chief Justice pronounced clearly that natural justice is alive and that it has to be observed.”
 
Lois Young, SC, represented Hulse, while Solicitor General Edwin Flowers represented the Attorney General/Government of Belize.
 
(The Hulse audit has been posted on the Government’s website: www.belize.gov.bz)

Check out our other content

World Down Syndrome Day

Suicide on the rise!

Check out other tags:

International