A project to electrify Caye Caulker Village will cost the Belize Electricity Limited some thirteen point six million dollars. The monies are being borrowed from the Caribbean Development Bank on certain conditions including that the loan shall be guaranteed by the Government of Belize. The objective is to improve electricity reliability and increase capabilities on […]
In 2009, Brads Gaming Company Limited owned by Kim Jen Chee was granted a management contract to manage the lottery programme which rakes in millions of dollars in administrative fees and taxes to G.O.B. The privatization increased government’s take and while Brad’s share is not known, it is surely a pretty sum. There is now […]
Brackett has since written a letter to Prime Minister Dean Barrow seeking information on the boledo deal. He is also advocating for the tender process and for information on who really owns Brads, a popular hang-out for U.D.P. politicians at the bottom of the BelCan Bridge. Geovanni Brackett, Concerned Citizen “When exactly does this […]
Brackett says he will lobby the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Senators and other social partners to get answers on the situation around the popular boledo. At today’s senate meeting, Business Senator Mark Lizarraga says that he too has issues with the way G.O.B. grants contracts. Mark Lizarraga, Senator for Private Sector […]
The U.S. Government, through the CARSI-ESF grant programme, has awarded seven hundred and fifty thousand U.S. dollars to three organizations in Belize. Since 2007, over nine million U.S. dollars have been awarded to civil society groups. Today’s funding is just one part of over forty million U.S. dollars awarded through the CARSI programme to Belize. […]
Former firebrand COLA President, Geovanni Brackett also chimed in today on the Hilltop property debacle where the headquarters of the P.S.U. was sold even though negotiations were ongoing with the Belmopan City Council. A Corozal company, Simplex Designs Limited, acquired the property and the P.S.U. is now facing eviction. Brackett is known not to mince […]
There is more tonight from the Public Service Union in respect of its former Hilltop property. The union says it will not be moved from its Hilltop headquarters in Belmopan. A few days ago, the P.S.U. President Gerald Henry received a letter from attorney for Simplex Designs, Estevan Perrera, telling the union that it had […]
Henry says that the P.S.U. has hired the services of Courtenay Coye LLP and the documents should be filed before October thirty-first. He says that the union will not vacate the property because that would mean that they are giving it up. Gerald Henry, President, P.S.U. “I believe that this week the legal team […]
Last week, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams indicated that Sergeant Shawn Walton and Constables Edward Pitterson and Bernard Cayetano are being recommended for dismissal from the force, resulting from the death of Nestor Vasquez Junior. The sixty-year-old died in June of massive injuries to his head sustained while he was locked up in a cell […]
In August, P.S.U. President Gerald Henry completed the first three weeks of his countrywide familiarization tour. Henry met with public services across the country, in government departments in every district. When he arrived at the Belize City branch of the Belize Tax Service Department the doors were closed and Henry was not welcomed. Henry says […]
Earlier today when we caught up with the P.S.U. president, we asked him about his recently concluded tour nationwide. President Gerald Henry visited government ministries and spoke to dozens of public service officers about work conditions. The P.S.U. says it is extremely concerned by much inaction, complete lack of respect, willful neglect, hazardous environments, and […]
According to Henry, the government needs to prioritize its spending more appropriately to areas where it is urgently needed such as health. Gerald Henry, President, P.S.U. “I always point to the fact that there is so much money being spent on these additional roads and streets, eight million for the Fabers Roads and I […]
The government side of the House last Friday gave final approval to the write-off of forty thousand dollars to Joshua Perdomo, the son of the Cabinet Secretary. As soon as the motion was presented, it came under criticism from the Opposition, as well as from other sectors. Today, the B.Y.M., which is the youth arm […]
At Friday’s House meeting, Area Representative Julius Espat made a presentation on the political interference in the election process. Tensions quickly heightened during a meeting on September twenty-eighth in Georgeville, Cayo. Representatives of twenty-two villages of that district met with officials from the Ministry of Human Development including former U.D.P. Minister Ruben Campos. The meeting […]
The Public Service Union is not giving up its headquarters in Belmopan so easily. Last month, attorney Estevan Perrera sent the P.S.U. a letter on behalf of Simplex Designs Limited, which acquired the property. The letter told P.S.U. President Gerald Henry that the property must be vacated by October thirty-first, 2019. Perrera warned the P.S.U. […]
This December will mark two years since Belize has been without a Contractor General. At the end of 2017 when the government attempted to re-appoint Godwin Arzu for another term, the Senate rejected the proposal since Arzu had failed to provide the required reporting. Arzu’s contract was therefore not renewed and since then his post […]
The Government of Belize has borrowed more than fifty million dollars to upgrade twenty miles of the George Price Highway, from the Roaring Creek Bridge to the Hawkesworth Bridge in Santa Elena, Cayo. The first multimillion dollar loan was made in 2015 and in 2018 an additional fourteen million dollars were borrowed from the International Development […]
One more issue from last Fridays House sitting, in 2018, the cost of electricity spiked twice. Later that year, Belize Electricity Limited made a formal request to the Public Utilities Commission for an increase of zero-point two-two cents per kilowatt-hour as the Mean Electricity Rate. The request was made for the company to recover approximately eighteen […]
BELTRAIDE’s training and employment centre called BTEC turned five years old this month. Today, the centre which specializes in preparing persons for the workforce, celebrated its anniversary. Back when it opened, it was to meet the growing needs of the business outsourcing sector in Belize. Fast forward to five years later, BTEC now offers specialized […]
The House of Representatives met in Belmopan today. One of the significant actions involved the controversial forty- thousand dollars loan motion granted to Joshua Perdomo. Perdomo, the son of Cabinet Secretary Carlos Perdomo, was approved twenty-seven months study leave to pursue a master’s degree in Forensic Genetics at the University of North Texas and was […]
A six-point-eight U.S. million dollars loan motion was presented during the Sitting of the House of Representatives. The loan was offered by the Caribbean Development Bank and the monies have been earmarked to assist Belize Electricity Limited to reduce B.G.B. emissions and improve the reliability of the supply of electricity to Caye Caulker, with increased […]
One of the string of bills passed into law by the House, is to cause the removal of Belize from the European Union’s blacklist. In March of this year, Belize was one of many jurisdictions blacklisted as tax havens by the E.U. According to the E.U., Belize, like the other countries, has shortfalls when it […]
Government announced today that the Ministry of Natural Resources will be implementing the Partial Remission of Land Tax Arrears Programme which is also known as the Land Tax Amnesty Programme. The programme was passed in the House and Senate in September, but there was debate about who was benefitting and the fact that while government […]
The Belize Port Authority held its maritime educational expo today at its headquarters at mile four on the George Price Highway. The event featured speeches, an award ceremony and several booth displays. Students from Belize City were invited to attend to learn about the maritime sector. News Five stopped in at today’s event which commemorates […]
Thirty-six-year-old Tomas Alexander Paises has been deported to his country of origin. Paises was arrested for being a member of the MS-thirteen gang and deported to El Salvador. He was arrested by the Anti-Gang Task Force and Interpol officers in Belize last month but was handed over to Salvadoran and Guatemalan Interpol representatives at the […]
