2 weeks ago, Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced that the Government of Belize would assume control over IBC and IMMARBE Registries from Belize International Services Limited.
Great significance was placed on the agreement, which Barrow referred to as "secret", which he took great care to explain to the nation why it was illegal. He laid blame on the then Prime Minister, Said Musa, and the then Attorney General, Francis Fonseca, who is now the Leader of the Opposition. According to Barrow, both Fonseca and Musa unilaterally signed this agreement which extended BISL's control over these registries until 2020.
Last week, the much veiled figure, Gian Ghandi, who has served as legal advisor to the Ministry of Finance for the last 13 years, sent out a an unprecedented release saying that he has extensively searched for any documented signs that this arrangement went to the Cabinet in 2005.
Well, the People's United Party organ, the Belize Times, printed an article in last week's issue of their newspaper, in which they fired back at PM Barrow.
In that article, they released photographs of Memorandum 21 of 2005, which outlined several agenda items in relation to IMMARBE.
But, what the pictures of the document reveal are that the Cabinet was supposed to discuss several international conventions such as The International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas; ILO Conventions regarding ship owners' liability for sick and injured seamen and for Prevention of Accidents (Seafarers) Convention.
The documents do not explicitly outline that an Cabinet was supposed to have discussed the future of IMMARBE or any extension of BISL's contract to 2020, but the newspaper asserts that discussions such as these did indeed take place at that March 15, 2005 Cabinet Meeting.
We contacted the Leader of Opposition, Francis Fonseca, for comment in relation to the release of this memorandum, but we got no response. We also called his office, but we were told that he was out.
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