Hulse: former gov’t gave 1500 titles/leases without documentation
A special sitting of the House was held today in Belmopan. Today’s sitting ended shortly after mid-day and was not characterized by the bows and arrows that are usually slung across the aisle. The government tabled a report by the Auditor General which showed that under the past administration in the period between September 2007 and February 2008, proper procedures were not followed in some one thousand five hundred land cases. News Five’s Jose Sanchez has a report on the House proceedings.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Today’s House meeting was orderly and did not have the usual verbal assaults. Perhaps the most contentious issue came from the Acting Minister of Natural Resources, Melvin Hulse. Hulse read from an Auditor General’s report that focused on the lack of documentation that accompanied leases and titles in at least one thousand cases under the former government.
Melvin Hulse, Acting Minister of Natural Resources
“The system in place for processing of land applications was circumvented. Key personnel were not involved or consulted, lack of documentation was prevalent, crucial documents were incomplete, national lands were being sold far below market value.”
Now those fifteen hundred files are in suspension and under review.
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
john briceño
“Many of them are trying to go and pay for their leases and they are told that the account is closed or frozen. Many of them have started to pay for their titles and they are told that they can no longer make those payments. Many of them have already paid for their title and they are told that they cannot get their titles. That is what the Belizean people want to hear, Mister Speaker, what is the government doing to get land in the hands of the Belizean people. And today we’re seeing that once again Acting Minister of Natural Resources continues pointing fingers and continues to cast more and more blamer. Enough of the pointing fingers.”
The Leader of the Opposition, John Briceño pointed out a few names he felt got land below the market value.
John Briceño
“Let me give you an example Mister Speaker: Anthony Michael, he got a parcel of land on Mount Pleasant and he paid two thousand dollars for it. Then you have Barroni Hernandez, the nephew of the Minister of Natural Resources, got a land in the very same area, a lot in Mount Pleasant. How much did he pay? Eight hundred dollars, Mr. Speaker. You have also Candice Anderson, remember when they were making allegations that they sold the land for too cheap in Caribbean Shores for four thousand dollars an acre. Well, Miss Candice Anderson, she got her land for two thousand, five hundred. Obviously the minister carries the same practice that the acting minister is talking about here in this honorable House. We have a lot for Senator Juliet Thimbriel on mile four and a half. Not one lot, she got two lots and how much did she pay Mr. Speaker? One thousand, five hundred dollars for each of those lots. And Ruben Campos, he got a lot in Consejo. How much did he pay for it Mr. Speaker, one thousand dollars. The point is that here he comes reading out certain parts of this report and talking and making the point that the minister, without any due process, reduced the price when actually all the minister was trying to do at that time was help as many citizens as possible.”
melvin hulse
Melvin Hulse
“You miss the important part of what this is all about. Nobody wants to fault anybody for trying to accelerate the system. But accelerating the system does not mean that you boycott and bypass the system. You set up a system of where things can move efficiently. Now we have penalized fifteen hundred people because there’s no application, no stamp, no signature no inspection sheet no, nothing. You were there and you used to ask for these things minster and that’s how we get it. That is why this report and this report is an impartial report by the auditor general who is responsible to do that.”
John Briceño
“The recommendations, Mr. Speaker, are some solid ones and I have no problems with these recommendations. But if we want to make sure that the Belizean people know exactly what is taking place in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mr. Speaker, to see who is getting a piece of land, what size of land, where they’re getting it, how much they’re paying then I want to challenge the government for them to bring an audit of Ministry of Natural Resources every year.”
Melvin Hulse
“If you noh got no ID, no signature, no stamp, no application to purchase, I mean the auditor general said bwai this is the resources of the country. The minister had authority to give all these fifteen hundred leases and title out you know so what I think puzzled the auditor general is why not just do the proper procedure? Dah noh like you could not have achieved the same results, just do it the proper way.”
It’s now up to cabinet to see how the fifteen hundred persons in limbo can get their land documents in order. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
As a concerned belizean residing in los angeles i want to advice the corrupt ministers to stop these non sense pinpointing one another and start to do the honourable thing work and create opportunities for the people that you all claim to represent. I must applaud the leader of the opposition for at least giving house lot to those people. A message to mr hulse. Do your work and stop waist peoples time and money. But in case you forgot as a benque resident during your esquivel administration erwin contreras was giving away land parcel without proper documentation during election day.
thats what i don’t understand why the ministers only wants and i quote WANTS to give lands to the rich , and the people that has money we have a lot and i mean millions of poor people that will find the way to pay for piece of land . why when voting time come all to ministers wants you . also they will bribe you for the vote . i do hope as god is above when i move back , i should have my land and papers paid for . i do hope to be in Belize to vote .
this present gov is a big joke trying to lay blame on anybody else it can this pm is taking the same role as obama blaming everything on the previous gov well my friend that will only last so long before even the idiots can see through your lies. with this gov economy in the drain,tourism in the drain,exports in the drain,investments in the drain,corruption out of control, crime way wayyyyyyyyyy out of control and where is the us what are they doing to help belize with all these murders since they are to blame for half of the murders occuring in belize by making this puppet pm take back all these gang members from the us ,who is pocketing the money given to this gov for taking back all these gang members from the us come on media ask ask lets see you ask this pm .i have a suggestion for this news paper start posting all these comments on on your live broadcast so that this gov can hear and see what the belizean people are saying.
My Belizean brothers and sisters, Minister Hulse is nothing but a big Joker. This Minister assisted Vendor of a fraudulent land in Hopkins Village by accepting funds from foreign investor to satisfy Bank Loan obtained by alleged fraudulent Vendor. This transaction was supposed to release title of this land for conveyance of said property to foreign investor within a reasonable period promised by Minister Hulse. If he is so concern about documentations, then why did he receive funds from this investor to satisfy another person’s debt prior to title research?. His supposed good deed whether intentional or not is causing problems in innocent peoples lives to acquire their own land and has caused embarrassment to his party and our country by written promise on Government Letter Head to foreign investor assuring conveyance to investor ASAP, which has not happened. “My bwai, you open you mouth and put two ah you foot een deh”. There’s an injunction filed by the Ministry Of Natural Resources against the land, maybe Minister Hulse should check on that instead of dodging the bullett and pointing fingers. The proof is in the pudding, just ask Minista Hulse.
Such a crack of poo poo all of them always trying to divert attention from the real issues, actually I believe that all Belizeans should have land for free there is enough land in Belize for this to happen but no those in charge use the land as a carrot on a stick to get votes. I think it is real crap when you need to see an area representative in order to obtain land that is how Belizeans that is not aligned with the ruling party get squeezed out, I wonder who is the area representative for foreigners when they want to get land in Belize I guess that would be the almighty dollar, I am talking from experience here I visited the office of the area representative of Belize rural north and he sent his crony out to tell me that getting a lease for a lot will cost me now we are not talking about normal fees here but fees to be paid to the area representative himself, now if I understand it right we just had a fifty two million dollars write off for housing loans tell me what is the difference between this write off and getting property for less than market value as they call it. Just about everything that these politicians do is about running away from the real issues, government has a responsibility to it’s citizens and a big part of that is to improve the living standards but the government of Belize is not interested in that the foremost interest of each and everyone of these officials is to create a legacy for themselves and on a big scale, what happened to the platform that Mr. Barrow was elected on to create accountability and transparency I believe that he is following a policy just opposite of that for before he got in power a person was able to go to the lands department and obtain ownership information on property now you need authorization from the property owner I believe that this new policy is to conceal the ownership information on property and not for the common person but for those in power they don’t want the public to know what property they have acquired after they take power after all this is part of the legacy building when this kind of information should really be public information.
What is Mr.Hulse talking about ? He is the same one taking people money, promising and giving no result. He talked too much , he need to start think before he talks .These minsters are no different from the others all of them go into politics for the same reason and that is PROFITS.Whether it is money ,land etc
There is nothing wrong with taking , but is there is something wrong when you take too much and talking what not yours.The least you guys could show we Belizean is what you have done for the country (people) as an achievement of your position.”That you have earned it” isn’t that we are teaching our children why not show it, and make a better example.
Why?Am just a student