PRESIDENT OF ACB RESPONDS TO LETTER FROM BELIZE BANK CHAIRMAN

May 03, 2007

The Association of Concerned Belizeans filed a motion in the Supreme Court yesterday. Love News spoke with President of the A-C-B David Vasquez who told us of events leading up to yesterday’s court action.

David Vasquez: President of the A-C-B

“This action was a follow up actually to the Belize Medical and Dental Union who had initially started the whole protest action that happened earlier in the year that brought this whole action to life. We saw it fit ACB that is to further the action by finding out exactly what the guarantee was al about, we wanted to be informed to exactly on what basis was the Government taking taken over or giving a sovereign guarantee for the loan for UHS, how open ended this supposed guarantee was. In the process of filing for a copy of the Freedom of Information Act, we have come to the conclusion that basically it does not exist and we got credible information from the Financial Secretary Carla Barnett that you know what that a copy was never at the Ministry of Finance, she had no knowledge of a guarantee existing. On that basis we sent a pro action letter through the Ombudsman on the grounds of the Freedom of Information Act. We had a pro action letter stating basically that under the Freedom of Information Act we are filing for a copy of that guarantee. Later the Ombudsman came back and said that he had actually seen a copy of the guarantee and he gave credence to it and said that he actually believe that it is a very credible document. It is from there we made a push effort to actually see the guarantee which was eventually publicly released. On the grounds of that guarantee and on the grounds that we feel that this guarantee was writing it is obvious that it is an unlawful document. We then decided to file what is called a declaration of unlawful which is basically what we filed yesterday and this declaration is basically asking the court to declare that under the terms of which this was written which means that Prime Minister first and foremost and it follows under three reasons, it’s a complaint if you want to call it that. The three areas I must say is that first and foremost the Prime Minister acted unlawfully in terms of him signing a guarantee without taking it to Cabinet, secondly it was unlawful that the guarantee was pushed through and signed did not go to the National Assembly and that falls under now the Finance and Audit Act which recently came into effect and thirdly any action in trying to settle this guarantee base on the fact that it is as a result of an unlawful act and it is unlawful in itself would be the detriment of the country and should not happen under the legal system, we are asking the court to make a declaration of unlawfulness under those terms.” 

The A-C-B has received a letter from Chairman of the Belize Bank, Philip Johnson.In his letter Johnson tells the A-C-B that the Bank does not accept that the A-C-B is entitled to attempt to intervene in a freely negotiated contractual arrangement and would strongly discourage the A-C-B from doing so. Johnson continues by saying the Bank considers any legal actions by the A-C-B to be totally irresponsible as the A-C-B is clearly not in possession of the full facts. The letter goes on to say this is a commercial matter involving fully documented legitimate business dealings between the parties concerned and any interference by the A-C-B in the Bank’s business is completely unjustified. Johnson says the A-C-B is put on notice that in the event that they decide to commence legal proceedings or otherwise take action involving the arrangement, the Bank will to the extent it is prejudiced by those proceedings or actions, pursue the A-C-B and its individual members directly for all consequential loss which It suffers. Johnson ends his letter by saying the bank will not stand back and allow an ad hoc group of individuals hiding behind the guise of some flimsy and superficial organization with obvious overriding motivations, to interfere with a commercial matter of this magnitude that does not concern them. Love News asked Vasquez for his response to the letter.

David Vasquez: President of the A-C-B

“We regard this letter as nothing more than a futile attempt at intimidation and it is basically typical of the Belize Bank and how they operate and we give it no credence, obviously there are no grounds. Yes they are an interested party but right now our process and who we are directly engage with is the Government of Belize and not the Belize Bank. They chose to enter in this way because they are an interested party so be it we can’t stop them from doing so, it is a part of their right to do so and make comments. But it is nothing more than a futile threat and we give it no credence, we are moving forward with our action. We truly believe that you what this is important for us to see it through to the people of Belize this is very important because it involves public funds, the settlement of a debt for a private entity using public finds and we will not see this happen without a fight.”

David Vasquez, President of the Association of Concerned Belizeans.

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