Photo: Erwin Contreras

Opposition to sue PM; Ashcroft Alliance suing Contreras for 10 Mil

BELIZE CITY, Wed. July 12, 2023

Ten million dollars is what three Ashcroft Alliance companies are claiming from former Minister of Economic Development Erwin Contreras in special damages for misfeasance in public office over his signing of the Portico Definitive Agreement on October 1, 2020. They are additionally claiming general damages and exemplary damages. The companies are Waterloo Investment Holdings Ltd., Belize Cruise Development Ltd. and Belize Logistics Terminal Ltd., which describe themselves as the “intended developers of a cruise and cargo expansion project envisioned at the Port of Belize located in the Port Loyola area of Belize City” (despite the denial of approval for that project two times by the NEAC due to serious environmental concerns.)

In the suit dated Tuesday, July 11, 2023, the claimants argue that the minister, in his role as a public officer, unlawfully signed the Definitive Agreement with Portico Enterprises Ltd. for fiscal incentives for Port of Magical Belize (PoMB) “in a surreptitious and hasty manner.” Those fiscal incentives have now been described in the public domain as unprecedented and plainly obscene. The companies call them extreme. The claim states that Contreras, without Cabinet approval or consent from the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance “sought to unilaterally grant tax and several financial concessions to PoMB and bind the Government of Belize to unprecedented obligations which were beyond the power and purview of any single minister or indeed even the Cabinet.” And the crux of the claimants’ argument is that Contreras “knowingly, willfully and recklessly abused his power as a Minister…knowing of the probable risk of loss and harm to the Claimants and other potential cruise ship industry developers.”

To solidify their argument, the claimants point to the fact that Contreras knew what the established procedure was for signing such agreements, having previously signed the Definitive Agreement for Norwegian Cruise Line’s Belize subsidiary. They also question the inclusion of a confidentiality clause in the agreement “when such agreements required parliamentary approval via legislation which were subject to public debate in the House of Representatives. Because of the confidentiality clause the Definitive Agreement remained secret for two and a half years.” As well, they highlight as prejudicial the fact that the agreement included a clause that purported to grant PoMB exclusivity within a 25-mile radius, which included the area they proposed to use for their cruise terminal.

Mirroring the move by the Ashcroft Alliance companies to sue Contreras, the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow, announced at his regular Tuesday press conference this week that his United Democratic Party (UDP) intends to sue the Prime Minister for conspiracy to commit misfeasance. Specifically, he said they will sue Briceño “for misconduct in office, for conspiracy, for failure to take action – because again, the Prime Minister knew that this was terrible for the Belizean people.” Speaking about King Counsel Ben Juratowitch’s legal opinion on the Portico Definitive Agreement which finds the document to be unlawful and not binding on the Government but which the public only learned about when it was leaked, Barrow states, “I cannot comprehend or fathom why the Prime Minister and his Government would want to go beyond Juratowitch, who is an esteemed – a preeminent international lawyer that is defending our territorial integrity. So, if we don’t have confidence in him, if the Government doesn’t have confidence in him, then something is terribly wrong.” Barrow said the Opposition has long maintained that the intent of the Prime Minister “was always to get the Definitive Agreement passed into law as is…” He opined that had the PUP and some Government Ministers not had a vested interest in PoMB, the PM would have immediately called a press conference to publicize and denounce what they had uncovered. Instead, he said, what unfolded was collusion “to try to get the favoured port project passed to the finish line.” He therefore affirmed that, “the Prime Minister and his Government have lost all credibility.”

Inside the Senate on Monday, July 10, the Opposition voted in favour of the establishment of a Special Senate Select Committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the signing of the Portico Definitive Agreement and the circumstances surrounding the presentation of a Cabinet Confidential dated May 15 seeking approval of draft supporting legislation that presented all the fiscal incentives and benefits as contained in the October 1, 2020 Definitive Agreement. Welcoming the move, Barrow said Tuesday, “We need to know why, according to the PUP, a corrupt UDP agreement was embraced, and a conspiracy was afoot to pass that agreement into legislation.”

Barrow is unconcerned about other then UDP colleagues of Contreras being found to have been in collusion with him. He expressed, “the difference between the People’s United Party and the United Democratic Party is we are comfortable with calling a spade a spade, and when one of our colleagues does wrong, we call it out. We denounce it publicly. And that is what you saw happen. Nobody tried to make any excuses for former Minister Contreras.” He went even further when he stated that the UDP is a party that does not support corruption and does not make excuses for it. On the contrary, Barrow noted that the legal opinion of Senior Counsel Douglas Mendez on the Definitive Agreement further indicts the PUP because he advised, “listen, you could legislate that.” The Douglas Mendez opinion states, “It is uncertain what position the Caribbean Court of Justice will take on the question of enforceability of a promise to take steps to enact legislation which falls short of an obligation to bind the legislation.” It then adds, “what is clear, however, is once the legislature passes the necessary law to give effect to the promise to grant exemptions, the issue of illegality falls away.” At paragraph 59 it states, “there is also strong authority for the proposition that even if the obligation undertaken is unlawful or unenforceable for whatever reason, the legislature may pass a law which in effect ratifies the otherwise unlawful agreement and provides the promised exemptions.” In conclusion, Mendez states, “there is nothing unlawful or unconstitutional about the National Assembly enacting legislation giving effect to the obligations under the Agreement to grant concessions.” 

Barrow believes that the UDP has gained public confidence due to its handling of this issue. He said that as it relates to the possibility of more people in the UDP being indicted in a Senate inquiry, he said any such evidence would have already come to light. On the contrary, he says it is left to be seen who in the PUP will be indicted at the Senate inquiry and that it will be interesting to see Prime Minister John Briceño testify.

As to any contact established with Contreras, Barrow says he has no intention of speaking to him about the Senate inquiry. He explained that Contreras was not an active member of the party when all this came to light, and expressed trust in all that the former Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, former Minister of State in the Ministry of Economic Development, Hon. Tracy Panton, and former Attorney General, Michael Peyrefitte have said on the matter.

Meanwhile, appearing on his party’s The Whip show on Vibes Radio on Wednesday, July 12, P.M. Briceño said that would be the last time he would speak on the issue of the Definitive Agreement. He stated, “After this, I have nothing more to say. The UDP signed the Definitive Agreement. I remember initially Michael Peyrefitte saying he neva know nothing and he neva dis when there is an e-mail showing he was receiving – he said ‘yes, well we knew about it but we did not know it was already signed.’” The Prime Minister continued, “Right now, I have a letter – and I will release it to the media, where in September, three letters were sent to the then Prime Minister Dean Barrow and to Tracy Taegar by Boskalis – the same company that’s partnering with Portico.”

According to the Prime Minister, the media will see, through those letters, that these companies were talking to the then Prime Minister and Minister Tracy Taegar. He added, “and now for them to say they didn’t know anything about it? You see how things start to come out? And more information will come out.” He then claimed that some persons in the media are trying to cloud the issue “as if we had anything to do with this. As I said, our policy in our Government [is] that everything goes to Cabinet. And we took it to Cabinet, and yes, we had to put the legislation. If Cabinet decides to accept it then it goes to the National Assembly, but in 15 minutes I said ‘we’re not going to pursue the UDP Definitive Agreement. We have to do something different.’”