Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley Cautiously Supports B.N.T.U.

Darrell Bradley

Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley’s statement a few weeks ago on an investigation into the Immigration Audit earned him praises from some quarters, but party leader, Prime Minister Dean Barrow, was not so amused. The city’s chief executive treaded more carefully today when asked about the B.N.T.U.’s fight for Government to address national issues. However, Bradley made two things clear: he expects that his opinions on good governance are shared by the rest of his party; and that the nation should continue to press the Barrow administration to step to the plate and follow through.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

“Let me be very clear; I have no opinion against my political party. Darrell Bradley has always stood for anticorruption; we’ve always stood for integrity in public office. I think this has been a U.D.P. value. When you look at our manifesto, there are strong statements in there about accountability and transparency. I think that we have gone a distance in relation to some things. Clearly there is much, much more that needs to be done in relation to making government work in the way that it should and really creating a government that accords with principles of good administration. I have not really been following the issue with relations to the unions so that I can’t necessarily comment on that particular issue, but I do think that every Belizean, including the U.D.P. wants a government that is as free of corruption as possible and carries out the public will. I mean we are here, we’re doing a march, we are doing a lot of activities to try to promote the city; but all of those works are brought to naught if we cannot ensure that the wheels of the administration of government work in a very efficient and timely way and accord with basic principles of integrity accountability, transparency and openness. And that’s what we stand for.”