NICH board discuss controversial agreement

There are still many unanswered questions and NICH President Diane Haylock will have some explaining to do about the controversial concession she signed with businessman David Gegg when she returns from holiday next week. But in her absence, NICH board members and the Minister of Culture, Marcel Cardona held a six-hour long meeting last night at the House of Culture to discuss the document and its legitimacy. And the views that came out of that meeting might be similar to those that Cabinet Ministers shared yesterday in their Belmopan caucus.

News Five understands that the Ministry’s intention is to now halt the construction of Gegg’s restaurant on the government land at Nohoch Che’en Archaeological Reserve next to Jaguar Paw. That construction, according to Gegg, started in October and when we visited on December tenth, this was how it looked – its structure was almost complete.

The concession signed by Gegg and Haylock back on August twenty-eighth, includes the construction of a restaurant and shopping accommodations and in return pay sixty thousand dollars annually for ten years after which NICH would get ownership of the building. While there is not much more details that was made available to us from that NICH Board meeting, we can say that the Board is now preparing a release of its own and that should we out by Friday.