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Today, Hulse - who is also the Leader of Government Business in the Senate let on that there are plans afoot for the Perdomo's possibly pay off the debt - which Hulse clarified, is not a student loan:..

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Senator for Government Business
"Joshua Perdomo was paid 80% of his salary while he went to study. That happens to a lot of people. My understanding is that Mr. Perdomo did not come back. So not coming back he did not fulfil his bond and so there is a condition in the thing that says if you do not fulfil your bond, then you should repay the government and there is all the pressure to repay it and I understand there are some arrangements being made by his family. I'll leave it at that stage. But I also want to reiterate, maybe we should dig up all those people who went and come back and make all of them get in the same boat too. It would only be fair."

Reporter
"Some people are arguing that other students loans should be written off in like manner and I think there is a petition going around to that regard."

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"Yes but when Mr. Perdomo pays back then we will say everybody pays back too. We have to keep it equal."

Reporter
"The prime minister's letter ignored the guarantor getting the money back from her. We've seen cases where you crowfoot people's assets, but because of who is concern here it appears that there was favoritism involved."

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"That's your opinion and I don't know what the Prime Minister's letter said. What I will say is that I can speak for the cabinet of Belize that I sit in and from I have been sitting in the cabinet of Belize this issue never ever came up."

Reporter
"So it didn't go to cabinet you're saying?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"No, when the write-off came, those things are discussed, but the write-off motion was already in chain, there was nothing you could do to turn that back and if you wanted to say that it was a special thing then what government could have done is pull back the write off motion so the public would not have known and just leave it there. They didn't. When it came from whatever ministry it came from the Cabinet just left it there. I am saying that during the process of owing the money it was never brought to Cabinet or discussed that Mr. Perdomo's son owes and we should crowfoot. None of that came up so I as a minister never knew that and I don't think any of my other colleagues."

Reporter
"Should the Ministry of National Security have gone after the guarantor?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"I would have thought so. You try to collect any monies owed to the government, I can't answer for them."

Reporter
"The point of it being statue bar, now that it has been brought up its being alleged its 12 years and not 6. You're kind of just writing that off rather than saying okay we will go to the law and determine if it is 6 or 12 to set that straight. Even the prime minister has denied do or refuse to do that in his letter."

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"I have made it clear to you that we are guided by the Ministry of the Attorney General. They are the government's advisors."

Reporter
"You could have asked and find out."

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"The ministry of the attorney general defends government is every case, advises government in every legal case and that is the structure. They told us its 6 years and its statue bar and we stand by that. I won't get beyond that."

And while the Government is strictly sticking to the Attorney General's position that the debt is statute barred after 6 years, the fact is that this entire debacle shows one thing very clearly: government and the opposition were asleep at the wheel.

As Hulse just said, write-off motions are not scrutinized by Cabinet; they come up from the Financial Secretary's office, and go to Parliament with Cabinet's recommendation - even though no one there has really read it! And when they get to the House of Representatives - those motions are simply read off - and no one pays any attention there either - including the opposition. We can say that for sure because we were in the house on Friday August 16th when the motion was read. The journalists in the gallery did see the write off motion in the House Papers and picked up immediately that it was for the Cab Sec's son - but when it was read - no one in the opposition even said a peep.

Here's the reading from that meeting:..

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Whereas Mr. Joshua Perdomo, was approved 27 months study leave to pursue a master's degree im forensics genetics and was bonded 3 years totaling $39,156.48 and was also overpaid $1,318.40 totaling $40,474.88 owed to the government of Belize and whereas at expiration of the study leave Mr. Perdomo failed to resume duties and his services was terminated on September 1, 2011. Whereas the solicitor general has advised that Mr. Perdomo would do monthly payments of $1,000 until payment was made in full, but to date no payment has been made and efforts to locate him has proven futile. Now therefore be it resolved that this honorable house approve the write-off of $40,474.88 as a loss to the government of Belize. This motion has the recommendation of the cabinet."

Prior to the meeting, all the members of the House had the house papers - including the write-off - for some days before the meeting.