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Turning now to politics for a month now, Prime Minister Barrow and his government has been roundly criticized for the $40-thousand dollar Cabinet and House approved debt write-off for Joshua Perdomo, son of Cabinet Secretary Carlos Perdomo.

As we told you, he was a former Ministry of National Security employee, who went on study leave, but never came back. The problem is that Perdomo skipped out on his obligation to return and his honor repayment terms. 

And now, Government says, the debt has been statute barred - and Government cannot ever recover it. 

Government says it tried to get him to honor his agreement, but was unable to do so, even though his father, as Cabinet Secretary, answers directly to the Prime Minister as the head of Cabinet. 

So, was Joshua Perdomo the beneficiary of political nepotism? That's what we asked the Prime Minister today at a press conference.  Here's what he said:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"When the matter came from the Ministry of National Security to the Ministry of Finance, the recommendation for the write off, and the Ministry of Finance brought it to Cabinet so it could go to the next house meeting, Carlos Perdomo was in Taiwan, had been on a month's holiday. So he wasn't there and there was no opportunity for him to say, well I just want to tell Cabinet that this is my son. I saw the name Perdomo and I figured it must be a member of the Perdomo family but that's an extended family, that's a large clan. So I did not know it was actually the Cab Sec's son. If I had known, I'm not quite sure what my reaction would have been because I hear you and I accept that this write off has left a very bad taste in the mouth of Belizeans, but there's a degree of misunderstanding. Mr. Joshua Perdomo, not sticking to the agreement he made, is deplorable but with respect to government, and any institution, writing off uncollectable debts, is par for the course, you do that, you don't leave this untidy situation. What you have to remember is that it is not as though the write off was done, while there was still any possibility of collecting from Mr. Perdomo. The matter had become statue barred, so there no was no chance, even if Perdomo returned to the country, there was no chance of collecting the money because it had become statue barred."

Daniel Ortiz
"What do you say to those who feel as though Mr. Perdomo benefited from political favouritism?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"That's what I'm saying, while I express solidarity with people who have in fact been given similar facilities, this was not a loan, this gentleman being an employee of the government, being given paid study leave. Nobody offered him tuition assistance, nobody offered him a scholarship, all he got was paid study leave. He paid for the course himself, but there are others who fell into a similar category and they came back and they served out their time. So, for them to feel hard done by that this did not happen in the case of Perdomo, is perfectly understandable but how can the question of political favouritism come in? My understanding from the Ministry of National Security is that they made efforts to try to collect from Mr. Perdomo, but he never returned to the country, he has never come back as I understand it. After 6 years, it is impossible to collect from him."