Panton Calls SSB’s Hydro Belize Investment A BEL Bailout

The Opposition is questioning the Social Security Board’s proposed twenty-million-dollar investment in Hydro Belize. SSB wants to buy a bigger stake in the hydroelectric company, which would bring its ownership to about forty-five percent. But Opposition Leader Tracy Panton says the public knows too little about the deal, even though Belizean workers are the ones paying into the Social Security Fund. Panton says she supports smart, profitable investments, but contributors deserve full disclosure when their money is involved. She also says the age of Hydro Belize’s infrastructure makes transparency even more important.

 

Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“What raises the red flags is the secrecy and the kind of closed-door approach. Belizeans can’t opt in or opt out of paying their Social Security. They must pay it by law. And indeed, Social Security needs to find investments that they can get a greater return on their investment so that when we eventually retire, we can get some support from the SSB fund but we need to know. What the government said initially was that they would sell half of this hydro shares. They would keep half. Now we’re transferring what, twenty million dollars I think, worth of shares to SSB. SSB deems it’s a worthwhile investment but we know we have aging infrastructure at the hydro facilities. There are questions we need answered. I have a hunch that the reason we’re selling these hydro shares to SSB, who will now own forty-five percent, I think once this deal goes through, of the Hydro Belize in in this country is to help with the BEL bailout – the seventy-three million dollars that will pass at the next house meeting on the 31^st. I’ve asked the question. I’ve asked the question to the Financial Secretary. I’ve asked the question to the Minister of economic development. I have asked the question to the chair of the Finance and Economic Committee at the House. How are we going to fund the $73 million bailout of BEL? And I have gotten three different answers.   I’ve even asked the CEO in the Ministry of Public Utilities, “Tell us where the money is going to come from to bail out BEL.” And, everybody’s hedging a, a guess. And I think that the Belizean people, I have a right to know and you have a right to know.”

 

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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