Did BTL Board of Directors Have the Full Picture?

The BTL acquisition vote is still stirring political debate, and today Union Senator Glenfield Dennison added his voice to the controversy. Dennison praised BTL Director Anissa Perdomo for voting against the deal last Tuesday and commended PUP mayoral aspirant Allan Pollard for his position. But he also questioned whether the board members who voted in favor had enough information to make a sound decision. Dennison also defended last week’s Senate walkout, saying the move followed discussions among all parties during a recess.

 

Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator

“I think what was equally important was the feeling from a true blue mayoral aspirant Allan Pollard who, like the unions we felt, represented the will of the people. And you only need, in my opinion, to look at the formulation of the board to understand that as Mr. Sanchez was trying to say that the result was a forgone conclusion when you look at the politics of it all. In relation to the vote itself, the other members who are appointed have a certain color. And they would have voted in relation to the will of, of those that would have wanted the acquisition. So, it’s unfortunate, I don’t think they had enough information to make the decision that they made. I am happy to have a look at the information and if that information does prove that buying Speednet was such an excellent investment I will eat my words and take it back. I will say categorically That there were two walkouts being staged at that same time. The, if you can look back at the video. Well, I think that might have been off camera but when we heard of the vote, the social partners did caucus and in fact we formulated our own decision to walk out. And so, it was actually in an intermission where we were deliberating that the leader of the opposition party would have indicated to us their position. So what ought to have happened was that the lead opposition senator would have given his remarks and he would have walked out. And we would have given some remarks and walked out, but the movement happened so quickly and the (very fluid) yeah, it was very fluid. And so, I make no, I think that’s it happened organically.”

 

Who Protects Consumers in Pending Telecom Shakeup?

 

Questions are growing tonight over Speednet’s financial footing and what it could mean for Belizean consumers. Williams Usher, Vice President of Industry at the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says the public has not seen enough records to feel confident about the company’s future. Like Union Senator Glenfield Dennison, Usher is also asking whether Belize has the legal safeguards needed to protect consumers in a telecom market that could be dominated by one major player.

 

William Usher, Vice President of Industry, BCCI

“For any business going to any lending institution right, borrowing any amount of money the bank will always ask you, can I see your financial. Can I see three, minimum to five years, for them to say ok that looks good or this looks bad. And, for us that is one of the major premises that we don’t have enough information there. Having one-year information for eighty million dollars, it just does not make any prudent business sense. The reality is we have a history to go back to where what BTL was before, when they were competition then all of a sudden there was a monopoly. What happened there, I don’t think we need to sit down and ponder what will happen in the future with a monopoly. That’s what a monopoly does right? And more so if the laws are not in place to regulate what those are and they are not because we are talking about section 424 which I’ll leave Reyhan to talk about more. But if these things are not in place, who are you whether government or the people out here to say listen you are taking advantage of me.”

 

The National Trade Union Congress of Belize and the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry have agreed to move together on the issue with united positions.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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