Cabinet okays Social Security overhaul

In what has been described as an effort to make good on all its manifesto promises, Cabinet, on Tuesday made a number of policy decisions. In the area of Social Security, draft legislation was approved that will overhaul many of the board’s operations. Among the changes are an increase in the size of the board to nine members, the publication of actuarial studies and the ability to invest S.S.B. funds in foreign capital markets.

Other proposed legislation includes a bill guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, whether the worker is a man or woman. A sexual and reproductive health policy has also been established, that among other things, affirms the basic right of all couples to decide on the number and spacing of their children. We are reliably informed that while this policy did not receive the endorsement of the Catholic Church–to which sixty percent of Belizeans nominally belong–the language of the document is vague enough to avoid any specific condemnation by the Bishop.

In other decisions, Cabinet announced a major drainage project for Jane Usher Boulevard in the Port Loyola area of Belize City, as well as the establishment of a national blood transfusion service to replace the present blood donor system. The new arrangement is intended to eliminate the possibility of Belizean patients receiving HIV tainted blood, as has already happened in two separate incidents.