O.P.M. Appoints Commission to Investigate Sale of Assets

John Briceño

The disposal of public assets, including vehicles, office furniture, and electronic equipment, just ahead of the November 2020 general elections, will be investigated.   The Public Service Union roundly criticized the fire sale of the property of the Government of Belize. Earlier today, the Office of the Prime Minister announced the signing of an order to commence a commission of inquiry into the matter.  Members of the commission are Chairman Andrew Marshalleck, Luke Martinez on behalf of the Public Service Union, and Marcello Blake, representing the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  The investigation will look at the procedures and processes for the sale of assets by the previous administration to determine whether procedures and processes were duly followed.  According to Prime Minister John Briceño, persons will be held responsible should there be any instances of fraud, corruption, or mismanagement.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“As you know, there was this fire sale of vehicles before the elections and a number of other assets and so the Cabinet felt it was best that we setup a commission which will include not only from the government but also the public service or the Public Service Union and the private sector, through the Chamber [of Commerce], for them to be able to have a full investigation to see what happened.  Once we got into government, we noticed that most of the good vehicles were sold and they were sold at some very cheap prices and so we need to find out what’s happening and if we can hold anybody responsible and if the possibility exists that we can take back some of these vehicles then we will do so.  As you noticed, we only bought probably about five, maybe six vehicles for ministers because there were none.  And speaking for myself, I’m still using my own private vehicle because we don’t have the resources at this time and we have other priorities more than vehicles.  So that is why we felt it was important to set up this commission.”