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Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Prime Minister of Belize
"Well, as he said, obviously the letter casing her leave had not yet been received by her; I hope it has been dispatched. But she also made a valid point, when she is placed on leave she doesn't seize thereby to be president of NICH, she is president on leave. I want to make clear that this is not about seeking to punish this lady. The board has come out in her defense and the board is entitled to do that. The deputy prime minister has been defending her all along and he is entitled to do that. Cabinet had to act in the way it did because of the allegations raised by the internal auditor. There is no doubt that those allegations resulted in media focus, media scrutiny, not to put too fine a point on it, a scandal perhaps of relatively minor proportions but scandal nevertheless. Cabinet can't sweep that under the carpet or take anybody's word for it, who might have an interest to serve, that no, the lady is as pure as the driven snow. So, Cabinet said, just let her go on leave until you can bring an external auditor to inquire on these allegations. Once the external auditor was to say, you know, as the board has said, there is no real merit in the allegations, then the lady, can in fact, resume her duties and her position; if that is the finding of the external auditor."

Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"However, the clear theme of the press conference was that you guys got it wrong, that the cabinet, they got it wrong, either they cannot apprehend the correct information or they were not appraised of the information. Sir, that is insulting."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"That can make no sense. Well, if what you are saying is true, if that is how they framed it then the insult would lie elsewhere because that suggests that cabinet made some determination on the merits. We were not concerned to decide whether the allegations that were made are correct, you know. If we had accepted that those allegations are in fact correct then we would have instructed that she be fired. But no, all we said was that the allegations need to be inquired into."

Reporter
"What is your position on the fact that her appointment was never brought before Cabinet for approval?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"That is regrettable and we've told the deputy prime minister that. That is extremely regrettable."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, can you speak, then, about what appears to be a personal beef between, or there are tensions on a professional level, between the music ambassador, your son, and the president of NICH?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"They are both adults and I would hope that any such tension might be resolved between them. I will say that the deputy prime minister is the deputy prime minister and ought not to be disrespected in public by anybody."