So while Minister Hulse says maximum cooperation, the Auditor-General’s team is saying they received anything but that. That’s actually par for the course where COLA is concerned. They were encouraged by no less than Prime Minister Barrow to pursue private prosecution, but when it came to getting support and assistance from government functionaries, they’re batting […]
There is tension tonight among the farming community of the Valley of Peace. As you know by now, the farmers lost their vegetables when the herbicide Roundup was used in aerial spraying. The company, Green Tropics, was fingered in the spraying but the company says it owns the land. On Wednesday, the farmers received an […]
The Joint Unions Negotiating Team, comprised of the Belize National Teachers Union, the Public Service Union, as well as the Association of Public Service Senior Managers, met with the Ministry of Finance this afternoon to finalize their salary adjustment. The fine-tuning of monthly wages works out to a six percent increase, retroactive to April of […]
Wednesday’s press briefing, hosted by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, lasted three hours and covered much ground. One of the issues which came up is the controversy surrounding SATIIM, drilling by US Capital and a decision by the Supreme Court which all parties are interpreting for their own purposes. We use the word controversy, but for […]
Who can ever forget the pictures of Minister of Investment Erwin Contreras and Minister of Tourism Manuel Heredia hobnobbing with the rich and famous in Cannes? They were the guests of the movers and shakers in the Puerto Azul project, dubbed a citadel of luxury. While the ministers and their family members who went along […]
Red Cross Volunteer, Torbjorn Pedersen, who also goes by the name Thor, has been making the headlines in many countries for his mission to travel the world. The thirty-five-year-old resident of Denmark, in the northern part of Europe, is on a “saga,” the Viking word for traveling and adventure. Pedersen is traveling to one hundred […]
The Prime Minister’s son, Shyne, is Belize’s music ambassador, and has been since April 2010. It was officially announced in a ceremony where Shyne was placed as head of the music program at NICH. That never went anywhere, and Shyne left for Israel shortly after. He’s now going by the name Moshe Levi Ben-David, but […]
An award ceremony was held today for two hundred and ten students who were successful in the popular GREAT program of the Police Department. It was a happy occasion for the students from south side schools who took part and learned to generally make good decisions in the critical issues they confront. News Five’s Duane […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow hosted a press conference this afternoon, his first in at least six months. So you can understand that there were many questions. In fact, the session went on for more than three hours. The first segment was dedicated to Belize City Council news, and we’ll get to that in due course. […]
While the PM took his initial jab at ROC, he pulled no punches when it comes to the unions who are behind ROC, and claims that the agitation of the Unions at this time is self-serving. A salary increase should kick in on July first and the PM says that while government has committed to […]
PM Barrow says that the IMF is actually telling the government to retrench public officers, as is being done all over the region. And it’s more than that. Teachers and public servants have made additional demands, including health insurance and payments for so-called lost increments. The PM says those demands are irrational and will not […]
Then the PM turned from the unions to the group which organized the rally on Saturday. BGYEA wants to plant corn on about sixty acres of buffer zone at Harmonyville and government immediately slapped them with an injunction. So BGYEA took centre stage at the ‘Plant di Corn’ rally. PM Barrow says they can plant […]
The Auditor-General’s report on corruption in Immigration surrounding the Won Hong Kim/Elvin Penner passport scandal was handed over on March twenty-first to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Immigration. Since then there has been no word on the findings from official circles and there wasn’t any either today. COLA has requested a copy of […]
And that brings us to the man at the centre of the scandal, former Minister of State Elvin Penner. According to PM Barrow, any suggestion that there is a cover-up is simply not true. In fact, he says, the ball is in the D.P.P.’s court and any decision to prosecute or not lies with her. […]
Alfredo Ortega has been the face of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association for years. First as Chairman and now as Vice Chairman, he has been at the fore of negotiations between the BSFCA and the Belize Sugar Industries on payment for bagasse. But tonight, the well-known outspoken cane farmer is in trouble with the […]
Minister of State Mark King came under fire recently for comments he made, claiming that they represented the policy of his government. King claimed that the government looks after, “U.D.P.s first, Belizeans second and P.U.P.s last.” Leader of the Opposition Francis Fonseca immediately demanded an apology from U.D.P. leader Dean Barrow on behalf of King, […]
In the same interview in which those comments were aired, Minister of State Mark King stated that he is lobbying Norwegian Cruise Lines on behalf of a security company he owns. King wants to provide security for the cruise tourism destination down south at Harvest Caye. PM Barrow has no problem with that. He says […]
Ministry of Health C.E.O. Peter Allen has come under serious and sustained fire recently. There have been public allegations made against him by parties in the Ministry of Health who claim that he is an incompetent and manipulative manager. He’s also been written up in audit reports on the misappropriation and misallocation of public funds […]
You heard earlier about Prime Minister Barrow’s comments on Health C.E.O. Peter Allen. He also touched on the comprehensive audits at the Southern Regional Hospital and the Central Region. But there are reports that other audits in other areas are also highlighting financial irregularities. Barrow says that where audits are concerned it’s damned if you […]
The reappointment of Justice Samuel Awich has been opposed by the Opposition and the Bar Association which went as far as to issue a resolution saying it did not support the reappointment of the justice. His contract matured on May fifteenth, on the day he delivered a significant ruling of the cases involving the nationalization […]
Since its grand introduction on the French Riviera a few weeks ago, to coincide with the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the Puerto Azul development project, a proposed multimillion dollar tourism initiative to be established within the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, has raised more questions than answers. The conservation community has come out hard against the proposed […]
The thirty million dollar Belize Municipal Development Project was the focus of a workshop in Belmopan today. The BMDP was rolled out a year ago, and so far there have been continuous discussions; today municipal authorities from all over the country were invited to discuss the outcome of the Municipal Development Planning Initiative, which is […]
The Belize Tourism Industry Association, Orange Walk Chapter, on Tuesday in a release complained about the bad state of streets in Orange Walk Town. While works are currently underway on fifteen streets under the responsibility of Kevin Bernard and his Town Council, two main thoroughfares, the Philip Goldson Highway and the San Antonio Road are […]
The Auditor-General’s report on corruption in immigration is out…well technically it’s been out since March twenty-first, almost three months ago…sent to the PM and to the Ministry of Immigration. But it has been kept under lockdown. And now it’s out…and we mean really out. COLA today issued a press release revealing that it has gotten […]
On Monday night, we showed you part one of an exclusive interview with Christian Ebanks. Ebanks, who also goes by the name Floyd Ebanks Jurado, is wanted in Ecuador for the 2011 murder of Alejandro Martín Teófilo, which occurred on Puna Island in the Guayas Province of his country of birth. While Ebanks was unable […]
