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Arturo Vasquez
The revocation, according to the release, states that Port of Belize Limited failed to honor three essential requirements, including the submission of a development plan to carry out any development works at Commerce Bight, the dredging of the approach channel and the dock basin, as well as payment of the lease rental to the Government of Belize. Despite not owning the tract of land, former owner, Luke Espat, proceeded with the construction of a private dock. The appropriation of the port, according to the Ministry of Lands, has become necessary to meet the commercial needs of the country.
Arturo Vasquez, Receiver, Port of Belize Ltd.
“At this point, to be honest Isani, all of this is in the hands of the attorneys right now. I would not want to speak as to what would happen after today but I know that monies were paid towards that property, maybe not for the property itself but the case basically was very clear in that the case was only addressing the land itself. I am sure that the pier would be another matter.”
Isani Cayetano
“Now this injunction was effectively lifted on July twentieth of last year and the government has only taken decisive measure as of today. Was there anything that the Port of Belize could have done during that time to either begin development or either commit to developing the Commerce Bight Port?”
Arturo Vasquez
“Yes, we have, actually we had, since I took over, there was a plan of development for that property. That was actually brought up during this case because, as you can imagine, when I took over I became a witness to this case and in one of my affidavits we had mentioned that since my assuming responsibility of the port we had plans for that property. That property is manned twenty-four-seven by security. We keep it well kept, we try to keep everything working, lights, security, everything.”
Isani Cayetano
“What does this mean in terms of either loss of revenue if it was operational or the investment that has been placed into the facility?”
Arturo Vasquez
“Loss of revenue may not be something significant because there was not much coming through there but yes, there was some cost to it. Investments, from what I can gather, are monies that were paid initially when this entire agreement was made. Those are the investments that we have sitting in our books where would be amortizing the pier for that matter.”
The government says it will begin seeking outside funding to develop the Commerce Bight port in the near future. In a press release this afternoon, Prime Minister Dean Barrow says G.O.B. “will not be deterred by the challenges that may be encountered in the process and will not hesitate from taking decisive action, wherever necessary in the national interest.”
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