Lizarraga says that even if motion is passed, will it be endorsed by House

Mark Lizarraga

According to Senator Lizarraga, once approved, the objective of the inquiry is to unravel what has transpired within the Immigration Department with a view to prevent this type of misconduct from reoccurring.

Mark Lizarraga, Business Senator

“The upper house, unfortunately today, still gives the government or the executive the majority.  So at the end of the day whatever motion that is brought from Senator Shoman will ultimately need the support of government for it to pass okay.  Unfortunately, we still do not have the thirteenth senator that was promised and we will continue to press for that I believe, for having the thirteenth senator because we believe that the senate should play a role in oversight. I truly hope that the senate in its whole supports this motion, whatever the motion is going to be and I am assuming that the motion will have clearly the objectives of this investigation.  But I certainly believe that this investigation will be useful for the people of Belize because it will be held in public.  It will be useful for the people of Belize to understand how we do things in government and how processes flow and why things break down and if we would have learned from it it would have been a good experience.  Again I refer back to the social security hearings that I personally believe a lot good came from it because it certainly helped us internally not to try and make those mistakes ever again.”

In 2004, the senate convened a special select committee to investigate how millions of dollars in loans were disbursed from the Social Security. The then chair of that probe was Godwin Hulse, who at the time did not hold public office.