Is there a Conflict of Interest with PM Briceño?

John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño is the minister responsible for broadcasting, and one of his many family businesses is Centaur Cable, headquartered in Orange Walk.  Reports are that Centaur is now providing cable services in the south and north, and then recently, C.C.V. absorbed C.B.C. – creating what some perceive to be a monopoly in the Belize and Cayo Districts.  Today, he was asked whether he must remove himself from that responsibility as it may be seen as a conflict of interest.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I don’t remember you objecting when we bought over your father’s company here in Orange Walk because it was a part of our strategy. To be financial viable, you need to have numbers; you have to grow with the number of customers and that is what we have been doing. Doing that now, it also allows us as a company, Centaur, to be able to provide a better service; that we have the cash flows to be able to invest because it requires heavy invest. But I think what you forget to point out, and I think deliberately, is that cable is as you know – you were on the board for many years – cable as an industry is regulated. So it is not that you can tomorrow do as you wish; you have to get approval from the regulator which is the broadcasting authority. Secondly, what influence can I have? You know the B.B.A. you know how it works so for you to try to create that – again, your usual self trying to be mischievous over something that does not exist.”