PUP walk out of House before vote; the $95 million grew from a $33 million Belize Bank loan in March 2007, to UHS, a private company

BELMOPAN, Fri. Aug. 31, 2018– The history-making House of Representatives meeting in which area reps were to vote on whether the government, as ordered by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), should pay Lord Michael Ashcroft’s Belize Bank for a loan to UHS (Universal Health Services), ended in an anticlimactic fashion when the government’s side of the House, the UDPs, voted “no” unanimously after the debate, but there was no vote from the Opposition PUP on a Supplementary Appropriation Bill for over $95.6 million because its members left the House before the vote was taken.

The original Belize Bank loan of $33,545,820, guaranteed by the Government of Belize, was originally issued to UHS, a private company owned by a group led by Loma Luz surgeon Dr. Muthugounder Venugoupal (Dr. Vinny).

The UHS did not pay the bank, however, and in the end, the bank called on the Government of Belize to make good on its guarantee.

The two entities — GOB and the Belize Bank— went through a number of court battles, beginning at the Belize Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, and then extending to the London Court of International Arbitration, the Privy Council in London, and the United States Supreme Court, all of which, with the exception of the Belize Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, upheld  the legality of the loan note and government guarantee.

Finally, the case was taken to Belize’s highest court, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), and last November that court also found that the government was bound by the terms of its loan note and guarantee signed by the previous PUP administration on behalf of the Universal Health Service (UHS) on 23 March, 2007.

The ruling UDP had let it be known that they would say no to the bill, while the Opposition PUP was expected to vote yes.

The bill was introduced to the House by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, member for Queen’s Square, in his capacity as Minister of Finance.

Before walking out of the House, however, some PUP members participated in the debate, lambasting the Barrow administration and blaming it for the monumental financial mess that the UHS/Belize Bank loan agreement has become for the country. The PUP members insisted that the UHS loan had been paid off prior to the Barrow government taking power in 2008.

The loan, said the PUP, had been fully paid to the Belize Bank, but the Barrow administration, when they came into office, had instructed the Belize Bank to return the money to government. According to the PUP, that was the birth of the 95-million-plus-loan payment that was before the House on Friday – all because of the UDP.

The UDP shot back, saying that that was not the case, that in fact, the PUP had diverted monies the government had received from Taiwan and Venezuela, BZ$40 million in all, to pay the UHS loan to the Belize Bank.

The war of rhetoric actually began when Prime Minister Barrow introduced the Supplementary Appropriation Bill and lined up the government side for what would be their historic no vote against their own bill.

“This side of the House, like that side of the House, is absolutely free to vote in accordance with the individual consciences of members and in accordance with what they conceived to be their instructions from those who sent them to this place, from those they represent. You can’t vote monies for a purpose other than will serve the national interest or will confer a public good,” Prime Minister Barrow said.

Prime Minister Barrow added, “Nobody in Belize, nobody in this great big wide world can show me any value that has been received with respect to this money that the court says is a valid judgement…. Again, because the rule of law is absolutely entrenched in our country under our Constitution and is inviolable, that does not vitiate, cancel or liquidate the debt. That does not take anything away from the judgment of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Their judgment stands. Their judgment remains valid. Their judgment would continue to mean that the sum set out in their judgment — the figure arrived at would be collectible in principle from the government of Belize.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the transaction that led to that judgment is repugnant, is immoral, is rotten, is leprous — some future parliament may well decide, well we have so much money, let us pay. But for now, I would think that while this parliament will want to take full account of the fact that there is a valid judgment from the CCJ, this parliament, these members, will look at things in the round, will take into account some of the factors I have just identified, including that they would be voting if they said yes for monies to liquidate a debt which confers and could never ever have conferred any good on this country – which is not for anything of value we have in receipt …”

PM Barrow further stated, “If the context of the decision that members have to make, they vote no, that is absolutely and completely within their purview, within their province, and in making their determination, I am sure that they will be guided by their sense of duty to the Belizean public, and I am here to tell them that they need not be detained by any suggestion that if they do vote no, somehow, that is disrespecting the CCJ. It is not. It is brought here by me as the Minister of Finance.”

“I want to make once again absolutely clear. Not because I bring it here as Minister of Finance, in consonance with my duty, so that the CCJ can see that we in fact sought the position of the House, not because I bring it, anybody can make any mistake and think that I have to vote for it,” said the Prime Minister.

Opposition leader Hon. Briceño was critical of the Prime Minister and his government, accusing the UDP government of corruption, and saying that they were the ones who created the current UHS situation.

“But now it’s at 95 million, because they are fighting all over the place in courts, spending millions of dollars — to lose all of these cases and now we are at 95 million dollars,” Hon. Briceño told the House.

Hon. Briceño explained, “This 36.8 million dollars debt was created by … who was in government at that time? Who was in power? No other than our financial genius, the Prime Minister and the UDP. It is his government, they broke it, they own it, they must fix it. The precedent that the Prime Minister wants to set in this House today, is that a parliament can decide what loan that they are going to pay and which one they won’t pay — because they never supported it, because they were on the opposite side of the House when that agreement was made.

“That is a dangerous precedent. The CCJ says that it was legal. So you are a better lawyer than the Chief Justice, true? I am a Belizean just like you. I love this country as much as you do. But when you are bloody wrong, you are wrong, and you are wrong right now.”

The PUP leader added, “Guess what, the fight continues. From the indications that I am feeling now, they are going to vote down their own bill. They bring a bill and they will vote against it. This must be the first time this is happening in parliament, that they bring a bill and they are going to vote against the very bill that they brought.”

Former Prime Minister Said Musa, member for Fort George and the man who signed the UHS loan agreement with the Belize Bank, told the House, “So if the Prime Minister wanted to follow the parliamentary procedure today, he should have indicated to the House that that bill has the recommendation of the Cabinet. But the reason why he did not is obvious, because they had already made up their minds that they will go through this formality, this mockery of the justice system.”

Before the Opposition decided that it was time to walk out of the House, some of its members had told the Prime Minister, among other things, that “you should be in jail,” and that it was an ego-driven decision for him to have used the Central Bank to take back the money that the Musa administration had paid to the Belize Bank.

Leader of the Opposition, Hon. John Briceño, member for Orange Walk Central, had only a few words for reporters who had assembled at the exit where they would pass on their way out of the House chambers.

The Opposition leader told reporters briefly, “This is a charade, this is a circus. How can you have a government that brings a bill that they are going to vote against? We are not going to be a part of this. We know what they’ve been doing. It’s just to put a show and people are tired of this foolishness.”

Today’s vote in the House can be seen as an expression of the sovereignty of parliament, but there is still the question of the rule of law that the CCJ decision represents. Following the House meeting, Prime Minister Barrow was at pains in his effort to explain that the action taken in respect of the Supplementary Allocation Bill was not a flaunting of the order of the highest court of Belize, the CCJ.

The only area representative who was absent was the UDP’s Hon. Gaspar “Gapi” Vega, who represents Orange Walk North.