Hon. Patrick Faber says student loan write-off for Cabinet Secretary’s son is “unfortunate,” and he would not have supported it

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 26, 2019– At the last meeting of the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Dean Barrow tabled a write-off motion for a loan of $40,000 that Joshua Perdomo, son of his Cabinet Secretary, Carlos Perdomo, failed to repay after he was granted study leave to pursue a Master’s Degree in Forensic Genetics.

Perdomo absconded and never repaid a dime of his student loan. Barrow told the House that Perdomo’s whereabouts are unknown and that the motion had the recommendation of Cabinet.

This specific student loan write-off, however, did not have the recommendation of the entire Cabinet, if one is to go by the remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber, who is also the Minister of Education.

Following severe criticism of the Perdomo student loan-write-off, DPM Faber clearly distanced himself from the action of PM Barrow.

On Friday, Faber spoke to the media and characterized the write-off as “unfortunate,” saying that his other cabinet colleagues would feel the same way.

“I think it is unfortunate and I will say this, that I suspect that my other Cabinet colleagues will tell you the same thing. While you have to specify in the House, and the Prime Minister did say this, that it has the support of Cabinet, I was not present in the caucus,” Faber said.

He went on to state, “We normally have caucus the Tuesday before the House meeting. I was away. But I suspect that even if I were in that meeting, the details of these write-off motions would not have been discussed.

“So I am pretty sure that the details were not discussed. It would normally come from the Ministry of Finance, that they are doing these write-off motions. As I think most media houses would know who broadcast the House meetings, this is a normal course that they do to write-off the assets that we believe are irrecoverable.

“I will tell you that I did not see that detail. I suspect my colleagues would say the same. In fact I am able to tell you that the Prime Minister, while he is the Minister of Finance, has said that he was not aware that it was the Cabinet Secretary’s son, but you will have to ask him for his own answer, but that is what he said to me.

“But that is unfortunate. While I can say that I did not know that it was happening, and it was the Cabinet Secretary’s son, that is unfortunate, and is not the kind of thing that I would support. I am one in Cabinet, and even if I have an opinion, and I just shared my opinion with you, I cannot speak on behalf of the Cabinet. We will wait to hear what they will say.

“Certainly, if you ask me for my individual view, that is not something that I would have supported. Whether or not the Cabinet Secretary can locate his son, I don’t know. You are right, it is a big pill to swallow. I don’t believe it is something that is feasible, but without getting into all of that and casting aspersions and jumping into conclusions, I think it is fair enough for us to put it back on the table at the Cabinet level and see what can be done.”