Where are the Details of the Multimillion-Dollar Contract?

Michael Peyrefitte

Even so, the loan was approved by a majority of senators this afternoon. Most of the road is still under repair and the Roaring Creek Bridge is incomplete. The new loan brings the total cost of the road rehabilitation project to over eighty million Belize dollars. Private sector Senator Mark Lizarraga says that there is need for transparency and accountability on the part of the government since substantive savings were expected from the initial loan in 2015. Lizarraga also contended that he will make good on an offer by Attorney General and senate colleague, Michael Peyrefitte to be given access to the details of contracts.

Mark Lizarraga

Mark Lizarraga, Senator for Business Community

“We haven’t even seen a portion of the road completed. We’ve seen works on maybe four miles, if that; works have begun. And already we are asking for more money. To compound it, I came in possession of a document from one of the supervising companies, IMC out of England, and when they identified that the two million dollar plans that we had paid for were not good—they were dangerous and a whole host of other things—they identified savings. That we were going to have savings by what they call value engineering. So we were certainly expecting to see the cost go down; not go up. Wouldn’t that have been nice? The Contractor General has said that the government has an obligation to provide us with the contracts—not only the loan contracts, but the contracts for the actual projects, which we have never seen. So today, as a legislator, I can’t say how many lanes that bridge will have in Roaring Creek. I can’t tell you how many lanes the road will have. I can’t tell you anything about how we are spending your eighty-one million dollars. I am sorry I can’t. So yes, that is less than accountable, that is less than transparent. And this government came to power promising transparency and accountability in the spending of the people’s money. Is that too much to ask?”

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Senator

“Any senator in this senate who does not have the information that they say they want, they really don’t want that information. But it is convenient to come here and give the public the impression like this is some Gestapo government running with so much secrets behind closed doors; no man. No man; if you wanted a contract for this, contract for that; if it exists sir, you are entitled to have it not just as a Belizean and member of the public, but indeed a member of the Upper House. Whatever is the argument on the merits, whatever, whatever Mister President. That is fine. But I am tired of hearing senators saying that they don’t have access to information.”