Dr. Carla Barnett has resigned her post as Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, and Amandala has been reliably informed from several sources that financial advisor, Joe Waight, who served as Financial Secretary during the first term of the Musa administration, has been offered the job.
Waight confirmed to Amandala today that he has been offered the job, and he has told Government that he would accept.
Waight has worked in the Ministry since 1982, and is particularly well versed in the intricacies of Government finances, having been the man who has often had the numbers at his fingertips.
When we spoke with Mr. Waight today, we took the opportunity to ask him if he knew of the guarantee the Government gave to the Belize Bank, dated December 2004. He said that he, too, only found out about it recently.
Waight seems ready to take on the new job despite the resurgence of the debate over the spending of public funds – a matter that insiders tell us was a source of great concern that ultimately precipitated the early departure of Dr. Barnett several months before the expiration of her contract.
On Monday, May 14, we spoke with Dr. Barnett via phone, but as soon as we identified who was calling, our telephone connection with her was immediately lost.
We note that her sudden but expected departure came at the height of the controversy over the settlement of $33 million for Universal Health Services (UHS).
Prior to her tenure as Financial Secretary, Dr. Barnett served as chief executive officer in the Ministry of National Development. She also served as Deputy Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). She was previously the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, and was appointed Financial Secretary at a time – succeeding Hugh McSweaney – when the Government had made public pronouncements that it would change its course in financial management and pursue a more sustainable path.
Recently, however, the Government has been rocked by a series of scandals following revelations by the media that there had been material non-disclosures to Dr. Barnett and other key Government officials regarding Government’s financial commitments – the most debated being the UHS loan and the guarantee, which Barnett said she did not know of when the Association of Concerned Belizeans requested disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
Dr. Barnett was highly respected in the local and international financial community, and her immediate departure is reportedly a concern to international financial institutions that trusted her professionalism in seeing through certain policy-based loan arrangements.