One more story about Wednesday’s Senate Meeting. A proposed amendment to increase the powers of the director of the Financial Intelligence Unit, allowing for greater access to fiscal information on individuals and businesses, was elevated to the Senate. It was met with serious concerns from the delegate of the business community. The issue of privacy, […]
Every two years, countries operating under the UNESCO banner have the opportunity to submit proposals for grant funding, up to fifty-two thousand Belize dollars per project. Only ten projects are approved by headquarters in Paris after a stringent selection process. Those projects must work to further UNESCO’s objectives through education, natural sciences, social and human […]
If you’ve received a call from a strange international number in the last day or so, and didn’t answer or call back, good for you. Because if you did answer, or call back, then you probably noticed that your credit was significantly depleted. There’s a phone scam being operated which is targeting both Smart and […]
Since he was booted from Cabinet for his involvement in the recent passport scandal in which a South Korean was issued with a Belize passport while in jail on September ninth, former Minister of State Elvin Penner, has not been seen in public, and except for an email, he has made no comment to the […]
While the Ministry of Immigration is investigating itself, there has been an open call for a criminal inquiry into the issuance of the fraudulent Belizean passport to South Korean businessman Kim Won-Hong. On Tuesday, a formal report was filed by talk show host Evan Mose Hyde requesting the involvement of the Belize Police Department in […]
Amid the ongoing debacle is the very real possibility that a recall mechanism, enshrined in the constitution, will be triggered by the opposition. The government of the day maintains control of the House of Representatives by a hairsbreadth. That seventeen-fourteen majority can be gravely affected if the constituents of Cayo Northeast collectively decide that after […]
While the Prime Minister spoke to the media at Whitfield Towers the leader of the opposition also spoke to News Five at Independence Hall. For the opposition, Penner, in fact, is suddenly in the spotlight for more than his involvement in the passport scandal. He and his seat are in the Opposition’s cross-hairs as a […]
P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca told us that he has a team ready to go to work collecting signatures, but he decided as a courtesy to give Penner a chance to do the right thing. In the meantime, Fonseca is applying pressure in another quarter. Today, P.U.P. Senator Lisa Shoman called for a Senate inquiry into […]
Deputy Mayor Eric Chang returns from Taiwan on Thursday to face the blaring music of his alleged involvement in the existing passport scandal. Chang is accused of being the courier of a fraudulent Belizean passport to imprisoned South Korean businessman, Kim Wonhong, a few weeks ago. While Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley has gone on […]
The issue of the passport scandal was also placed squarely on the floor of the senate by the opposition and we’ll have that coming up. Following today’s special sitting of the Senate, the Minister of Immigration, Godwin Hulse, gave the media an update on the current investigation into the passport scandal. Hulse refrained from commenting […]
The opposition has already said that it will be triggering a recall if Elvin Penner does not resign by October seventh. In the senate today, Lisa Shoman of the P.U.P. introduced a motion on the passport scandal asking for support for an investigation. According to Shoman, the issue of such national importance that she believes […]
For years, the City Center stood abandoned and forlorn, awaiting a rehabilitation and renovation which never seemed to materialize. But now it is, and to make way for what is promised as a glorious new multi-million dollar complex, the old building is being dismantled. Because of the state of the condemned building, the work has […]
It has been twelve days since we first broke the story on the issuance of a Belize passport to a South Korean national who had never set foot in Belize and who obtained a passport while he was sitting in a Taiwanese jail. Cayo Representative Elvin Penner was dismissed from cabinet for his involvement. Last […]
On Monday, Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse commented on the ongoing investigation into the recent passport scandal involving junior minister Elvin Penner who has since been dismissed from cabinet. While a internal inquiry has is taking place, there are controversies surrounding the investigation since it is being spearheaded by the substantive minister. Today, outspoken legal […]
But will there be a criminal investigation into the current passport scandal? There should since there is enough to suggest that a crime was committed in the issuance of a passport to South Korean national, Kim Wonhong, who was behind bars in Taipei when he got the passport on September ninth. Elvin Penner lost his […]
While the issue of the passport scandal took center stage in the House last Friday, amendments to the Criminal Code as they pertain to sexual offenses against children and persons with mental disabilities were also introduced. Special Envoy for Women and Children Kim Simplis Barrow has been an advocate for the revision of the dated […]
The government announced today the formal opening of the Belize Infrastructure Limited. The interim general manager of BIL is Christy Maestre. If the name sounds familiar that is because Maestre was contracted as the project director of the Sustainable Tourism Project where she managed thirty million dollars of infrastructure and construction projects. BIL was established […]
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and the Belize Sugar Industries, under the American Sugar Refining Limited, have been enjoying a fruitful relationship since ASR successfully purchased seventy-eight point six percent of the B.S.I. Group. Sugar production at the Tower Hill Factory has increased considerably and following a successful year for caneros in the north, […]
In Orange Walk Town today, a national workshop got underway to strengthen efforts to record Belize’s rich cultural diversity. The workshop is sponsored by UNESCO in partnership with NICH. Its objective is to ensure that Belize’s cultural forms are safeguarded. Duane Moody reports. Duane Moody, Reporting Almost a year ago, the National Institute of […]
Primary school teachers across the country, employed under the Catholic Public Schools system, are tonight awaiting the processing of salaries through their respective banks, following a delay in the payment schedule for the month of September. Wages are often deposited by the last Friday of every month; however, a problem with the payroll, which went […]
While the hiccup caused a delay in payment, there were teachers from several districts, including Orange Walk, who stayed away from their classrooms today. Their abstention, says Faber, was unwarranted. Reporter “Did this particular problem affect pensioners as well, past teachers?” Patrick Faber “You know, I am not certain. I think that once […]
The current passport scandal involving the fraudulent issuance of an official Belizean travel document to imprisoned South Korean businessman, Kim Wonhong, in Taiwan has seen the dismissal of Cayo Northeast area representative Elvin Penner from Cabinet. While the prime minister’s decision to fire Penner from his post as Minister of State in the Ministry of […]
The media also got an update from the Minister of Immigration himself today on the investigations into the passport scandal. But while Godwin Hulse commended the new and improved systems in place at both the Immigration and Nationality Department, he chided the ousted minister for his involvement in facilitating the issuance of a Belizean passport […]
Belize’s Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington addressed the United Nations General Assembly this morning, where he spoke on the issue of the postponement of the joint referenda which should have been held in Belize and Guatemala in October. The simultaneous exercise was to have posed the question of whether the unfounded Guatemalan claim should be submitted […]
Today at the Radisson Fort George, municipal leaders gathered for a 2013 Local Governance Symposium being held by the Caribbean Local Economic Development Project. The CARILED Program is designed to assist and work with respect of community leaders across the Caribbean in creating employment opportunities. With local economic development as its primary focus, the one-day […]
