2 members from the newly minted Integrity Commission withdraw
The resurrected Integrity Commission as promised by the government is in its infancy, and already there has been a significant wrench thrown into the works. A release from the Office of the Prime Minister this afternoon confirms that two persons have indicated that they will not be able to accept their appointment which went before the senate last Thursday. Those two persons are businessman Brett Feinstein and banker, Steve Duncan. Both men have withdrawn their names because of the recent passage into law of Bills to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force. Because of their positions on the Integrity Commission, the men would be classified as PEPs, or Politically Exposed Persons. The release from the PM’s office states that as a result of the new bills, “onerous disclosure obligations are visited upon PEPs, their family, friends and associates.” Government has now begun to search for persons who would be prepared to serve despite the inconvenience and international scrutiny which would be visited upon them as a virtue of being classified as PEPs. With Feinstein and Duncan gone, the remaining members of the Commission are Chair Marilyn Williams, Armead Gabourel and Wilmot Simmons for the government, and Kevin Arthurs and Phillip Zuniga for the Opposition. Both Simmons and Gabourel serve on multiple Boards as representatives of the Government. Gabourel, for example, allegedly serves on the Belize District Liquor Licensing Board, the K.H.M.H. Board and the Elections and Boundaries Board.
Welcome to the new world order UDP-they stuff things down your throat you did not read and if you did, you did not care about Belize or the qualified few that can help you. Now you have less and it will only get worse cause OECD will come again and say Now you must do more while we do not-grow some bolas and stand up to them. They will not collapse the banks-they are tricking you.
We can never do anything good here in Belize.
No one picked by the udp can do this because they are all thieves
Too little to late PM. This commission should have been up and running on your first year as prime minister, but to finally fulfill one of your campaign promises …NOW… after all the scandals discredits you the entire commission. You like to ride above all these scandals as if you had no idea that these scandals were happening. You are the captain and YOU go down with the ship. I would feel shame to be in that commission!!! You blew it and nothing that you do can change that. The Belizeans who elected you are fully awake with both eyes open…come election time….you will see pm…you will see!!!
Niether Channel five or seven news explained what a “politically exposed person” means leaving viewers to look it up elsewhere. Kind of basic information missing from the story and leaves a lot of room for speculation. For instance, will people wonder if these two individuals have something in their personal history that could be problematic, or someone else in their family is on some US watchlist or something? Needs some clarity here because these two may just have not been comfortable with this designation rather than actually have something to cover up.
Sign on to the United Nation’s convention on anti-corruption and government transparency would be a step forward on integrity.
Belize is one of the very, very few countries that has not.