Chamber Calls for Measures to Combat Corruption

The ongoing saga involving the relations between murder suspect, William Mason, and Cabinet Ministers as well as the beheading of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas won’t go away any time soon. The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry today sounded off its view in the context of its Business Sustainability Agenda released just before the 2015 general elections.  Central to its statement is a call for measures to combat corruption and strengthen the rule of law.  Anti-corruption laws, including campaign finance reform, must be implemented and applied visibly, impartially and indiscriminately from the top down and across the board. Belize has to adopt international conventions and implement laws that instil transparency in all facets of the government. On the issue of the decapitating of Pastor Lucas, the reported findings surrounding this case, including extortion and the ability to obtain a Belizean birth certificate illegally, or outside of the normal process, demonstrates corruption at the highest levels.  The private sector is also of the view that the cold-blooded beheading of one of our fellow citizens along with subsequent developments related to the case are yet more evidence of the need for serious police reform.  It ends by saying that, “Belize’s current economic and internal security crises are not the result of one government, but of successive government’s inability, unwillingness or lack of courage to address the fundamental issues of corruption and good governance.”