The Speednet deal is dead, but questions around BTL’s board are very much alive. After Cabinet rejected BTL’s proposed acquisition of Speednet, former BTL workers are now turning their attention to the directors who supported the deal. The Belize Communication Workers for Justice says the board must answer for its role in backing a transaction that Cabinet ultimately refused to support. Organizer Emily Turner says the issue now goes beyond the failed acquisition. She says it raises serious concerns about judgment, independence, and whether BTL’s board is truly acting in the company’s best interest.
Emily Turner
Emily Turner, Organizer, Belize Communication Workers for Justice
“I think that his comments were very, like he’s not in touch with what’s going on on the ground. You know, like you said, I have to read the room. He’s not reading this environment at all because for some reason he believes that he can just proceed with this. And then he changes the statements that he makes every time he is asked something.”
Shane Williams
“From the performance of the company under this board management, has the board proven that they make decisions in the best interest of the company?”
Emily Turner
“This current board of BTL? You put a really tough question to me on that one. I think that the in being part of management at BTL, I will say that the board is not as thorough as I would have wanted them to be when I was there. They basically look at things on a very high level. Maybe it’s intentional how it’s presented. There are many things that in my experience they have missed when management presents it to them. And so if the question I think that they should be more thorough in the way they exercise their fiduciary duties overlooking BTL. I am shocked that we actually assigned the cousin, the uncle or the whatever of the chairman of BTL to BTL board, I don’t know how we could have ever done that to move him from, assign him from SSB to the BTL, like conflict is, like if conflict, if conflict of interest was a person, that would be that business bureau guy, you know, so, which now it brings back the thing about social security, I am happy to have heard that two of the social security directors voted against it, I think they have to finish their duty with then telling us what made them vote against it, because we need to know why they voted against it, we know that the other eight people that voted in favour of it are all cronies, we want to respect that these two individuals are independent in their thinking based on how they voted.”
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