Digicel last night called for “full public disclosure” on an apparent missing tape of a meeting they had with Government officials about launching international long distance.The chief executive of Digicel Bermuda Wayne Caines demanded the Ministry responsible for Telecoms “come clean publicly on this issue of what happened to the audio recording of the meeting where our approval for long distance services was expressly granted by Government”.In a statement further turning up the pressure on Government, Digicel said it was “seeking a full and frank explanation from the Department of Telecommunications/the Ministry of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy regarding the whereabouts of the audio recording of the meeting held between senior Government representatives and Digicel representatives on 16 September 2011”.Mr Caines said that Digicel was “completely transparent at all stages with what we intended to do in terms of our long distance offerings”.He said Digicel specifically requested the September 16 meeting “to ensure that Government fully understood what we wanted to do before we proceeded to finally acquire Transact”.Mr Caines added: “Digicel would not have purchased Transact if this approval had not been granted. I was very happy that Government sought to record the meeting for that purpose as we believed this would avoid any potential for any ambiguity. We are therefore extremely concerned that Government appears unwilling or unable to produce the audio recording of this key meeting where our ILD was actually approved.”The statement from Digicel continued: “It was during this recorded formal meeting that Government’s clear approval for Digicel’s plans to provide international long distance services using Transact’s Class C license was granted. This meeting followed a lengthy application and approval process that began in July of that year. This formal meeting of 16 September was openly recorded following a specific request having been made by the Government’s team and immediate agreement to such recording having been provided by Digicel Bermuda’s CEO, Mr. Wayne Caines.”Digicel went on to say it was “staggered and baffled” when Government filed written objections to Digicel’s ILD service in October of last year as part of legal proceedings between Digicel and CellOne.“Following receipt of these bizarre objections, Digicel sought a copy of the audio recording of the approval meeting of 16 September from the Department,” Digicel said.“This request was ignored and then refused. To date, no such copy has been provided and it has been intimated to Digicel that no such recording is available. However, despite numerous written requests, no explanation as to what happened to this critical audio recording has been forthcoming.“It is unclear to Digicel whether the recording was lost, destroyed, erased or whether there is some other reason why the recording cannot be publicly produced. Digicel is perfectly content for the recording of this meeting to be made public to all concerned. Digicel has nothing to fear from the truth and is calling for full disclosure by the relevant Government officials on this critical matter.”The Royal Gazette first reported on the apparent missing audio tape yesterday.As we noted, the September 16 meeting was attended by Patricia DeShields; Acting Director of Telecommunications Michael Wells; Telecoms Officer, Department of Telecommunications and Melvin Douglas; Solicitor General and legal adviser to the Bermuda Government.Digicel said the meeting was recorded by Ms. DeShields as Acting Director of Telecommunications and referenced in the letter written to Digicel dated last October 20 by the Telecoms Department in which, Digicel says, “approval was expressly and unequivocally confirmed to Digicel to provide ILD services through Transact’s Class C licence”.Mr Caines further commented: “We would also like an explanation as to how it came to pass that the Department could write Digicel a letter confirming the approval of the ILD service on 20 October 2011 and then, only five days later, file objections with the Supreme Court completely denying the validity of the ILD service.“What happened between 20 October and 25 October that forced Government into performing such a staggering reversal? The public needs to know and understand what happened to the Ministry’s tape. Unless this is explained, the impression could be created that the tape is now missing because its contents completely undermine Ministry belated attempts to object to Digicel’s long distance service. Digicel has nothing to hide and would hope that Government could act likewise.”