Address to the Nation
Fellow Belizeans, I come before you now to express the United Democratic Party’s complete disgust at the Prime Minister’s response to the public outrage over his Universal Health Services scandal.
That response is the farthest thing from the admission of wrong, expression of contrition, and plea for forgiveness that the circumstances demanded. Rather, it is a continuation of the Prime Minister’s deception on the issue, mixed in with a defiant determination to force the taxpayers, at any cost, to repay the UHS debt.
The Prime Minister claims, first of all, that his secret signing of this unlimited sovereign guarantee for a private debt, is nothing out of the ordinary. Indeed, he says, past Ministers of Finance have signed similar guarantees.
But the United Democratic Party can say without any fear of contradiction that our two-term Minister of Finance, the Rt. Hon. Manuel Esquivel, never, ever signed such a guarantee. So again, the Prime Minister dissembles. The fact is that such a guarantee is in and of itself an immoral act. Done without the knowledge of Cabinet and the approval of the National Assembly, it is also an illegal act.
The Prime Minister says, though, that legal or not, it was an act he did in good faith. But that is nonsense. Our research shows that when the Belize Bank first began providing what the Prime Minister calls bridge financing to UHS, the Bank fully secured itself. It took, on 31st December 2002, a mortgage debenture, from the principals and private guarantors of UHS, of over 29 pages of machinery and equipment and 16 pieces of property. Then on 21st February, 2003, the Bank further secured itself by taking, in addition to the private mortgage debenture, a DFC guarantee for 17 million dollars.
The Prime Minister, then, could never have been acting in good faith when, in December of 2004, he deliberately relieved both DFC and the UHS private guarantors, who were the friends and associates of his Party, from all their liability. The fact is he relieved them and shifted that liability completely on to the Belizean taxpayer. And he did so at a time when the loan was irretrievably in default and he knew it could never be serviced by UHS.
But his attempted rationalization is that at least government now owns a top quality hospital that will provide access to poor people. That, of course, is a cruel falsehood. It is obvious that government cannot afford to maintain UHS, pay staff at private rates, and offer free treatment to the indigent. Indeed, the whole nation watched in shock as the unfortunate Marcial Mes victims were turned away from the very UHS when they couldn’t pay.
The Prime Minister also says he never lied to the Cabinet or the Public Finance Committee. But the records show, and his own Ministers have stated, that he never told them about the guarantee when he signed it. That is a lie of omission. Worse, the Prime Minister later actively misled the members of the Public Finance Committee. He suggested to them, on April 23rd, 2007, a renegotiation of the UHS debt. He did this without ever disclosing that he had already, on March 23rd 2007, converted that debt into a Government of Belize loan, in express violation of the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act of 2005. That is a lie of commission.
In all the circumstances, the claim of good faith now being advanced by the Prime Minister is utterly bogus. And history waits to see which of his Ministers will be the fifth columnists rash enough to stand in the National Assembly and say that they embrace it.
The Belizean people, of course, have already spoken. And it is to their cry that we give voice when we say again to the Prime Minister, resign and call the elections now.
The Party
Home l History l Philosophy l Party l Speech l Press Release l Contribute l Contact Us l Volunteer