BELIZE CITY, Tues. Jan. 19, 2021– Back in December of 2020, the newly appointed Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Dean Molina, wrote to Senior Counsel, Andrew Marshalleck, seeking legal advice on the reversal of a $10.3-million purchase-sale agreement made between the PUC and Boutros Bou-Nahra Company Limited for the procurement of the old Mirab building, located on North Front Street.

According to Chairman Molina, the huge purchase may have been agreed upon unilaterally by the commissioners, since, according to the correspondence he viewed, only the PUC’s finance officer, who was instructed to make payment, knew of the agreement. The exorbitant nature of the payout agreement for a relatively old building also has raised many questions. It must be noted that a former Commissioner at the PUC, Pierre Bou-Nahra, is also a part owner of Mirab, and in Molina’s letter, he pointed to a striking indication of conflict-of-interest that has cast in doubt the validity of the purchase-sale.

In an interview with the media, the other Bou-Nahra brother, Micheal Bou-Nahra, claimed that his brother had recused himself from the transaction, and that this was also noted in the letter sent from Molina to his legal advisor. Micheal Bou-Nahra, in that interview with the media, said, “Let’s take an average of three hundred and fifty dollars per square foot; that puts it at seven million, three hundred and fifty thousand for the building, just to construct at today’s market. What happened to the property that it sits on? That’s one of the best properties in that area, luxuriously. It sits on two properties at twenty thousand square feet. At two million dollars for the property, that’s nine point three, and the other property is worth a million dollars. So that’s ten point three, and that’s where the figure came from.”

And while Bou-Nahra justified the process of valuation that caused them to arrive at the figure of 10.3 million dollars, the issue of payment still remains unresolved. The agreement was for the PUC to make a downpayment of 1.8 million dollars, followed by scheduled monthly payments, to the owners of Boutros Bou-Nahra Company Limited, but the commission could not make the payment and instead, came to an agreement to transfer a property they owned on the George Price Highway in lieu of cash payment. This covered most of the agreed-upon downpayment of 1.5 million dollars.

However, the PUC still remained at its office on Gabourel Lane, reportedly paying almost thirteen thousand dollars monthly for rent at that location. More recent information reveals that to date, most of the $10 million sum agreed upon between the parties for the PUC’s acquisition of the Mirab property remained unpaid. In 2020, amid the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the PUC defaulted on payments, and made advances for the month of November and December 2020 at October’s pay cycle. Interestingly, reports indicate that one day before the General Elections on November 11, advance payment was made for the months of January and February 2021.

According to part-owner of Mirab, Michael Bou-Nahra, the purchase agreement was for the Mirab building and the property it sits on, as well as the vacant property next to Belize Insurance Center.