Mayor Wagner Wants less Bureaucracy in Distribution of Hurricane Relief Supplies

Bernard Wagner

Following Hurricane Lisa, the Belize City Council spent an estimated five hundred thousand dollars, according to Mayor Wagner. He explained that these funds were reimbursed by central government. Another weakness that Mayor Wagner identified is the bureaucracy that affected persons often face in accessing relief supplies.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“What we also found, one of the weaknesses was the fact of relief and supplies after the hurricane had passed. How do we get the relief and the supplies out to the people in an efficient way. People don’t want any long process where you have to fill out a form to get relief and supplies. It is burdensome to the people. I don’t believe in that type of going through all those red tapes. We have to simplify the process for relief and supplies. It has to be that we go to the people and that is how we at the city did our relief and supplies, we ensured we went into the communities with the relief and supplies. Going out into the communities is far more effective than having to fill out a form and waste all the residents’ time in getting those supplies to them.”