All Confiscated Assets Released to BSWAMA Says SolGen Hawke
Nigel Hawke
The Belize Solid Waste Management Authority, a statutory body, has recovered all of its assets that were crow-footed during a writ of execution carried out on behalf of Vision Architects on June twenty-ninth. At the time, all of the office’s equipment, including furniture, appliances and vehicles, were seized for auction. The crow-footing succeeded a twenty-one-day period during which government could have appealed the outcome of a matter in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Vision Architects. When letters written on behalf of the company to collect a compensation of almost six hundred thousand dollars were not answered, Vision Architects moved to crow-foot BSWaMA’s office in Belmopan. According to Solicitor General Nigel Hawke, the company’s attorney, Naima Barrow, carried out a writ of execution on government property which is prohibited under the Crown Proceedings Act.
Nigel Hawke, Solicitor General
“What I can say, I know the matter is still before the court. The most I’ll say is, okay we filed, they would have applied and had gotten a writ of execution to levy on assets. They’ve indicated that they were going to levy on assets of SWMA. The assets of SWMA, we say, are the government’s property. If you have a look at the titles for the vehicles you will see all of them in the name of the Government of Belize. So we made an application to the court saying, under our rules and under the Crown Proceedings Act it’s clear that you’re not supposed to levy on assets of the Crown and that is being made even clearer now at the CCJ level. They outlined the Belize Bank case, what should happen if we fail to pay. So what simply happened yesterday is that the judge said he wanted to hear further arguments on the point, but he made an interim order that the assets supposed to be returned to the state and I believe that was done yesterday afternoon.”
Isani Cayetano
“In full?”
Nigel Hawke
“In full. All the articles and the vehicles would have been returned.”
