PM Barrow says Penner has been punished and so should the public officers
Dean Barrow
While Castro ran for cover, Elvin Penner emerged from hiding and was in the House of Representatives this morning. As we said, he was seated all by himself in the far corner of the government side, but was present and accounted for. Penner’s name has resurfaced with the leaking of the Won Hong Kim report from the Ministry of Immigration. In that report, senior nationality department employees state that Penner gave them the Kim nationality application personally, and promised that he would return with supporting documents. News Five has received credible information that Penner did that on multiple, or rather many, occasions, but that’s another story for another time. Today PM Barrow dismissed the report, sticking to the stance that the former Minister of State has been punished. The PM also took aim at the public officers involved, stating that their claim is no defense for doing the wrong thing.
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Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Penner has been fired. There is no…the jury isn’t out. There is no question in my mind as to Penner’s guilt as to the wrong that he did and that’s why he has been fired. Now public officers are clearly under the gun. For them to say that the minister, whom we all accept was guilty of wrongdoing, as it were leaned on us or persuaded us to do things without the proper documentation, to do things that were wrong; to my mind that can’t serve. No minister should be able to tell you as a public officer to do something that you know is wrong. In addition to that, Godwin Hulse has made the point that he said to all his staff from the moment he became minister, if any minister tries to lean on you to do something wrong, tell him no and you come to me. It doesn’t help to crucify Penner all over again; he is politically dead, he has been fired as a minister. The public servants that are left behind in my view cannot be allowed to escape by employing the excuse…well it was Penner who asked me to do this. If it was wrong, you should never had complied with Penner’s request to do what was wrong.”
AH WANDA WEH PENNA GAT OVA BARRO? LIKE D BREDDA KANT TOUCH PENNA AT ALL. TALK BOUT PUNISH ENUFF. IF DA MI WAN A DI PUP DEM E MI WAH DONE TRY FI LAK DEM UP AN IF DAH MI WAN A WE E MI WA DONE LAK WEE UP.
The PM well and know that when the minista lean pon you you betta jump especially fi he govt with a bunch of ignorant ministas. Nuff people done quit they job sake a ministas so he need fi stop talk #@$$.
Mien…this PM has big ….so if I am a public officer…if I am a government employee I am at the mercy of any minister??? If we do not follow their instructions, even if we know its breaking the law, what will happen to us as employees?? Lets play the “if” game. So what if those public officers would have told penner…NO!!!.. Would those officers still have their same position? I bet Not!!! They would be either fired or moved to another position. Penner has people working for him that will say and do whatever he wants period!!! and this sadly is the same with every single minister!!!
This PM talking BS.Those public officers would have definately been victimized if they had reported Penna.
Is there anyone who is presently writing the history of Belize NOW, so that 20, 40, 50 years from now, we can be showing our grandchildren the corruption of past governments? To let them be aware of where they come from, and to what state they are in 50 years from now? To teach in our schools the REAL history of our government say from 1981 to 2020? It would be shameful but at least it would be the truth. And to write this history book, it should be in the making NOW, so that facts and eye-witness support each other.
Penner should be forced to resign and the underlings at the passport office cited for the wrong they did. Penner was the master mind behind all the mess!
Penner has not been punished at all; Barrow save that crap for another day!
I would like to be punished, and still be call Honorable, with an extra fat salary, and perks, plus a new government SUV, with unlimited gas! The man travel to Chetumal regularly at our expense. That’s the lifestyle of the rich and famous. These men have no shame to actually go and sit in the house of representative, like honorable men. Straighten up Belizean people we are being hoodwinked left, right and center.
As a public office if we do as the Minister say, we are $#@ked and if we don’t we are still %#@ked. Dammed if we do and dammed if we don’t. What kind of job security is that? Wake up PM and people of Belize! This semi dictator government is making new rules to try to cover their backs.
Belizean, who wouldn’t want to be punished, and still be allowed to be collecting over $7,000.00 am month, with car, gas and free phone. Why is he still giving this man the subvention to run an office, when the man have been expelled and fired, then he say smart stream has the fault. Simply tell the accounts clerk the man is not to get any subvention and the case is solved.
Punishment for Penner would be IMPRISONMENT. Stop tek di people fu fool Mr. Barrow. Corruption exist in every single Ministry of this Administration. Mr. Barrow, i think your time is up!
How short the memory of the Belizean people. Didn’t Barrow and his ilk run on an anti-corruption platform of “openness” and “transparency” in the last two elections? And what have the results been? We’ve seen widespread corruption with rampant nepotism; the sugar industry, one of the pillars of of the economy, has come been weakened; poverty is through the roof, and many could be considered working poor as wages haven’t kept pace with cost of living; police corruption has risen to unbelievable levels; we’ve been in the world spotlight for things like human trafficking; and we even have a “Minister of Gangs” for the first time. I hate to say it but when Belizeans put them in again, they got the government they deserved.