Local Company Kicked Out by Venezuelan Company to do DigiNet Works?
Rochus Schreiber
Has Belize Telemedia Limited hired workers from Venezuela to replace Belizeans who are installing lines as a part of the DigiNet roll out? The C.E.O. of the company has denied this, but News Five has received several reports that N.S.S.L., a local company contracted for the job, has been replaced by Venezuelans who have taken up the installation that was started last year. B.T.L’s C.E.O. confirmed today that it only hired KM, a company from Ireland, to do the network. K.N, according to sources, has been operating in Belize for several months working harmoniously with N.S.S.L. But since May of this year, a Venezuelan employee of B.T.L reportedly hired a new set of workers, believed to be from a company called Teleco from Venezuela, to do the same installation work that N.S.S.L has been doing across the country for the full roll-out of the programme. Today, we asked the C.E.O. Rochus Schreiber for comment; he denies any involvement of a company called Teleco. Here is what he said on the matter.
Rochus Schreiber, C.E.O., B.T.L.
“I have never heard of a Venezuelan Company Teleco. Not to my knowledge, first time I am hearing anything like that.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Which company has been contracted to roll out DigiNet in Belize?”
Rochus Schreiber
“For DigiNet we are contracting an engineering company called KN that is providing the overall project management skills but the workforce is local. B.T.L during this project we increased our workforce by over one hundred people including contractors. So, last year around this time we were around six hundred and now we are almost eight hundred people strong because of the resource requirement for the roll out of this network and only the resource that we are employing directly. The contractor, K.N., which has experience of building and managing projects of this scale and complexity across the Caribbean, they are employing their own people. So, indirectly and directly, B.T.L is really contributing to the growth and development of Belize, including opportunities for employment.”
Hipolito Novelo
“K.N. – and that is from which country?”
Rochus Schreiber, C.E.O., B.T.L.
“K.N., yes, they are from Ireland. However, they are working globally.”
Hipolito Novelo
“And so they have local workers – because a report came to our newsroom that somebody else was contracted and they were boxed out in terms of Belizean local contractors?”
Rochus Schreiber
“Yeah, the workforce, the actual people who are working on it, that workforce is local. Project management, the ability to plan, forecast, order, this type of complex project of this scale which we are doing across the entire country, we went with somebody who has experience at that level. There is nobody in Belize who can build a nation-wide fiber network.”
