Briceño sees excessive control in changes to City/Town Council Acts
Getting second readings today were bills to amend the Belize City Council Act, the Belmopan City Council Act, and the Town Council Act… all in an effort to improve the management of the municipal bodies. But where G.O.B. sees increases transparency and accountability, Leader of the Opposition John Briceño sees excessive control.
Gabriel Martinez, Area Rep., Corozal West
“This bill is an attempt to improve the system so that the council can better perform its statutory functions to serve the residents of Belize City.”
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“We know, Mr. Speaker, just in ten months the amount of problems the central government is having with their own control or municipal bodies. We can understand why they want to make some of these changes, but I think this is an idea where you are using a sledge hammer to kill a fly. It’s just way to the other extreme. When you look at it, this bill is setting us back twenty years where we’re reversing all the work where we were trying to decentralise the work of the councils allowing them greater autonomy and greater management of their affairs. The more that I think about these proposed amendments, I think it is coming to the point of why have municipal elections if the central government is going to have such a control over the affairs of the town councils.”
Anthony “Boots” Martinez, Area Rep, Port Loyola
“How can the government be giving money that si tax payer’s money to the city Council and Town Board and say to the tax payer we can’t account for what we gave to them because they don’t account to us. Is that business, Mr. Leader of the Opposition? I’m sure that is not business none at all.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Mr. Speaker, there are only one, two, three provisions that make any substantive changes to the way the act is currently framed. That’s all, three. He is talking about, Oh we’re going back twenty years. Man, there is absolutely no merit to his general charges. As has been said, what the government is doing today is to insist that accountability and transparency govern the municipal bodies. Sections one and two are introductory and dealing with disqualifications one, two and three. The first substantive provision is section four which amends section twelve of the principal act by providing that now no payment shall be made to any member whether in the form of an allowance or otherwise unless it has been previously approved by the council unless in contravention of this section shall be wholly void. The accounting officer shall not countenance any payment not made by resolution. And there is an amendment considered by the committee which makes it plain that those resolutions have to have the support of the minister of finance. These changes are designed to ensure that the Belize City Council and all the other municipal bodies will not vote themselves salaries, emoluments, allowances without the approval of the Central Government via the Ministry of Finance. What on earth could be wrong with that? If that had been in place, the stealing that went on at the Belize City Council when the P.U.P. was in charge could never have happened.”
In related news, today the House also approved the thirteen million dollar IDB loan for its Sustainable Tourism Program.
