Photo: Former Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow

He contends that the Port buyback was “forced by Michael Ashcroft” and will compound the already high cost of living.

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Dec. 18, 2023
   
Former Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, who himself has been criticized for arranging the payment of $600 million to Lord Michael Ashcroft for Belize Telemedia Limited, which according to an NERA valuation was worth $75 million, is now being publicly critical of the Government’s buyback of Port of Belize Ltd. (PBL) from the Ashcroft Alliance, deeming the BZ$166.74 million payout as a gross overpayment for the facility. He claimed that during the initial years of the receivership when the Ashcroft creditor companies, which held the Belize City port in receivership since January 2012, were only interested in recovering the monies they were owed, a Dubai interest made an assessment of the port and only offered to buy it at US$10 million. Barrow also emphasized that when “somehow” there was a shift in ownership from the receivership to the Ashcroft Group’s Waterloo Investment Holdings Ltd., the latter never did make any attempt to invest in the port to conduct urgent repairs and upgrades; therefore, nothing has been done in 12 years. Instead, Waterloo held the Government at ransom, demanding approvals for a cruise terminal while refusing to invest in any modernization.

When Amandala asked Barrow if his Cabinet ever considered a Government buyback of the port, he responded that they “did not see the port in the same way as we saw BTL and as we saw BEL.” He explained that what triggered the nationalization of BTL and BEL was the belief that the utilities are so critical that Government ought to be the owners because “the prices they charge consumers have such a huge impact.” That way, the government could control prices. In this case, however, he does not believe that a reduction in fees for importers is what has spurred the buyback of the port. He suggested that instead, the opposite may happen, given the deterioration of the port.

While Barrow says he himself was never told a figure during his administrations of how much would be needed to upgrade the port, he surmised that it is “perhaps tens of millions [that] will need to be invested by the Government in the port to bring it up to snuff. We all know that the port is in a horrible condition.” Pointing to the hint of Prime Minister John Briceño at a tariff review to come, Barrow noted that charges to importers “will more likely than not increase. The buyback will result in a tremendous jump in the cost of living.” Barrow added, “I don’t know any government that reviews tariffs downwards.” Barrow further explained his view that, while repair work is done, there is likely to be interruptions at the port that could force a deviation of cargo to Big Creek, leading to additional costs that will be passed on to consumers. And he commented, “… already, people in this country are being hammered by a cost of living that is entirely out of hand. The Government, with this buyback, is going to compound this problem.”

Barrow scoffed at the affirmation of Prime Minister Briceño that the port revenues will end up paying for the purchase. Barrow stated, “They say that the profits are what – according to them – the Ashcroft concern says they are. Man! Look at the BTL experience again. Ashcroft had said that his valuation of BTL was $1.1 billion and he backed that up with a Price Waterhouse official report and valuation. And when the arbitrators looked at it they said, ‘Absolutely not! Nonsense!’ They cut that down by more than half. Point being that you cannot take on faith what the Ashcroft concern says in terms of valuation. Likewise, in terms of profits.” In the case of the port, PM Briceño told the nation that Ashcroft was seeking BZ$548 million for the entire deal (facility and awards) but the actual payout will only be BZ$197.34 million. He also told Amandala in an interview on Wednesday, December 13, that as part of the buyback negotiations which lasted about two months, Waterloo had to provide its financials; but he admitted that they were not audited financials. Barrow says it’s not his sense that the Government did any thoroughgoing check with respect to the figures, and that they seemed to have simply accepted what the Ashcroft Group put forward in terms of revenues. He called this a “basic, unforgivable fault of the Government.”

Barrow also was dismissive of the second portion of the agreement which involves the resolution of two international arbitral awards dating back to 2009 at a payment by the Government of BZ$30.6 million. While the Briceño Administration says their agreement resolves those awards “at pennies on the dollar,” Barrow insists that they were valueless to Ashcroft. In one case, Barrow shared that Belize’s highest court, the Caribbean Court of Justice had said Belize need not pay the award because it’s “repugnant to public policy.” Unsatisfied, Ashcroft went to a New York court, where it was ordered enforceable. Barrow said that, while he considered the move completely disrespectful, when the order was given for enforcement, his response was, “Okay. You say it’s enforceable? Enforce it. We have no assets in the U.S. except assets that are clothed in sovereign immunity such as the Central Bank reserves, such as our diplomatic premises … That is why, for all these years, they have not been collected upon, because practically speaking, they can’t.” As to the Prime Minister’s argument that Ashcroft might come after our debt service payments, Barrow declared, “We’ve been making debt service payments all these years. Those things are, practically speaking, untouchable.” Barrow questioned why the Briceño Administration has agreed to pay the additional money for the awards, when Ashcroft would have collected on them a long time ago if he could have. Barrow has even shared that Ashcroft had threatened him back then of giving the awards over to a vulture fund, and he (Barrow) said, “Bring it on!”, but there was no such move by the Ashcroft Alliance.

Last Wednesday, when we asked Briceño what is the value of the Government’s legal and consulting fees for the negotiation, he responded, “How will I know this at this time? Now we have to get the bills to be able to pay for that.”

Barrow says he is convinced that Government did not take over the port because “it has been bitten by the nationalization bug. Government took over the port because they were forced by Michael Ashcroft to do that, after they made it clear that they would not give him the permit for the cruise port, and after it became clear that the Government was in bed with the Portico people.” He pointed to the “vicious onslaught” of ads unleashed by Ashcroft against the Government. Barrow says his sources have told him that Ashcroft told the Government, “‘that that you’ve seen’ – which clearly affected them – ‘that’s previews of coming attractions … you better come and buy me out, otherwise what I will do between now and the next elections will all but ensure that you lose those elections.”