BELMOPAN, Fri. Nov. 23, 2018– At Friday’s House of Representatives meeting, Hon. Cordel Hyde, area representative for Lake Independence, in addressing a matter of public interest on the adjournment, urged the Barrow government to rescind the contract for the Boledo franchise that was given to Brads and Company almost 10 years ago. Hon. Hyde told the House, “I want to put the government on notice. They need to do the right thing here.”

Hon. Hyde said that with all the public officers we have, the government should be able to find a couple officers to administrate the Boledo enterprise.

“I believe it was in 2009 that Brads and Friends were given a 10-year contract to administrate our Boledo franchise,” Hyde said. “So, I imagine that at some time, pretty soon, it will come up for consideration. I want to put the government on notice that they really need to do the right thing here. They really need to rescind that contract. The only problem I can recall is that government was complaining that they are only getting a million dollars in taxes from the sale of Boledo…$500 thousand…so they say, ‘Okay, we are going to give Mr. Brads and his friends the goose that lays the golden egg’…for $2 million in taxes,”  Hon. Hyde commented.

Hyde said that knowledgeable persons were saying that Brads and Friends were raking in somewhere between $22 million and $30 million a year in profits, and that over 9 years that amounted to about $270 million. Hyde said that if the profits were $20 million per year, or even $10 million annually, that that was still a whole lot of money.

“Who foregoes that kind of money?” Hyde asked. “Which government foregoes that kind of money? Which government?” he questioned.

Hyde repeated that the government’s argument was that they can’t administrate the Boledo, that they are not competent enough to ensure the smooth running of the enterprise.. He said it’s the same argument the government used to outsource the management of the Civic Center. “Why else are you outsourcing Boledo to Brads and Friends?” Hyde asked. “It escapes me, Madam Speaker, why we can’t take back our Boledo,” Hyde said.

Hon. Hyde said that 50 percent of this country is considered poor. He said that kids are dying prematurely because they can’t afford medical care. He said that at this time the country needs its resources more than ever.

In responding to Hon. Hyde, Prime Minister Barrow said, “The member’s arguments would have been far more compelling if he had been able to furnish us with substantiated data. You can’t just pull figures out of the air and then say, ‘Well, he is making $30 million, if it is not 30 it is 20, or let’s say it is 10.’ We need the facts and the bottom line is that when the Boledo was privatized, the government was making a grand total of $500,000 a year. There was a period when even that revenue stream dropped.”

PM Barrow said a committee was set up before the Boledo was privatized and the committee was chaired by Godwin Hulse.