Photo: Hon. Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism

Portico “Definitive Agreement” scandal rankles PUP Cabinet

by Marco Lopez

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. June 1, 2023

“There was no revolt, there was a sober discussion on the issues,” is the reply Minister of Tourism, Hon. Anthony Mahler gave the media when pressed this week on Portico’s so-called Definitive Agreement. The document, which authorizes development concessions that could only be approved by parliament, was signed by former UDP Minister, Erwin Contreras and the principals of Port of Magical Belize. It is illegal, according to former UDP officials.

The confidential Cabinet paper was leaked last week, and this week in an interview, Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño expressed his discontent. “I want to make this very clear; I am very disappointed that this paper was leaked out. As you all know, when we were appointed to the Cabinet, we signed an oath of confidentiality that what is discussed in Cabinet should remain there, because this allows ministers to speak their minds freely,” PM Briceño said.

Minister Mahler said the leak may not have necessarily come out of Cabinet, and that the PM’s displeasure is justifiable. “I nuh play dehn games deh; we can have an honest, sober discussion, so whoever leak the document, or however … doesn’t necessarily have to be from inside Cabinet because you have other people, in other offices that prepare the Cabinet paper to get them through a process, but whoever leaked the document I just think that’s a level of unprofessionalism,” Hon. Mahler said.

So, unprofessionalism blew the horn on what the public is now considering one of the most outrageous set of development concessions ever granted to a private enterprise in Belize.

UDP Leader, Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow lays the blame squarely at the Prime Minister’s feet for tabling the agreement at Cabinet. He attributes its revelation to what he calls a coup within the PUP’s most private chamber. Minister Mahler has dismissed this notion.

While he condemns the action of Contreras as corrupt without reservation, LOO Shyne believes the PM’s action to take the “illegal” document to Cabinet was even more atrocious. “If I am prepared to accept what a former UDP Minister did as a corrupt act, it appears in all its forms and fashions to be an unethical act, an unauthorized act … you have to bind the Prime Minister with that, who went on record that that is binding, he read that Definitive Agreement,” Hon. Barrow said in an interview this week.

In March of this year, PM Briceño said that he had not yet seen the agreement, but that if it was signed by the minister responsible then it would be binding.

Minister Mahler described this as just a next episode of cleaning up the UDP’s mess. He called the concessions in the document scandalous, and said when it was ventilated in Cabinet, he and other ministers, including the PM, found glaring issues, and the decision was made to shelve the agreement.

“The Leader of the Opposition needs to check himself, blaming this on the Prime Minister and this PUP Government. Erwin Contreras signed it, just like he signed other agreements on behalf of the UDP when they were in power,” Hon. Mahler said. He rejects the stance of Michael Peyrefitte, former PM Barrow, and the other UDP officials who claim they were unaware of the agreement.

But this seemingly “scandalous” document made its way to the Prime Minister’s Ministry of Economic Development, Investment, and Finance and then to Cabinet. Hon. Mahler confirmed that the first draft of this confidential Cabinet paper, to which the agreement was annexed, came from the PM’s ministry. LOO Barrow is adamant that the PM read the agreement before presenting it to Cabinet.

“Even if when he said he didn’t, at that point, that was in March, if you are going to tell me that before he presented that paper to Cabinet, he didn’t read it, then I guess that is more proof that he needs to resign,” Hon. Shyne said.

When asked why the document, with outright illegalities as it relates to the procedures of being granted concessions, was even tabled at Cabinet, Minister Mahler deferred the question to the Prime Minister and his Minister of State.

“You have to ask them that; I can’t answer for them,” he said. “I am telling you that I got the document the day before, somewhere around one o’clock … I spent a lot of hours reading through it, and what I saw there was scandalous. Now you keep missing the point, the scandalous document was signed by Erwin Contreras and the UDP,” Hon. Mahler said.

“Listen, there was a discussion on the paper; it is on hold; it is going to be revised. We are fixing a lot of mess that the UDP left behind for us to deal with, and every day we are dealing with them,” Hon. Mahler said. He confirmed that a legal opinion of the document “was sought and is being sought as well.” We will continue to follow.