The Caribbean Court of Justice this morning heard dueling applications from the Belize Bank Limited and the Attorney General in Port of Spain concerning the still-outstanding U.H.S. matter. The C.C.J. ordered the forty-million dollar Belize Bank loan to be paid last November. The loan, made to the original owners of U.H.S. and guaranteed by Government, […]
The Belize Bank is tightening the screws. On Monday a U.S. district court judge ordered that the Bank can seize property owned by the government of Belize “in the jurisdictions where such attachment or execution is appropriate.” The ruling was mentioned by Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay during arguments for the Bank’s case at the C.C.J. […]
When the new budget was presented to the House of Representatives last Friday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow made claims with respect to the value and cost of B.T.L. Tonight, we take a closer look at the facts, which when analyzed, appear to be quite outrageously positive, giving the appearance that the acquisition has been a […]
A loan to B.T.L. was also tabled before the Senate today. The loan from Taiwan is for of thirty-five million Belize dollars, for a commitment period of twelve years at a fixed rate of interest of five point five percent. The loan will be used to finance the installation of a state-of-the-art fiber optic network. […]
The 1968 Stores Orders Regulations were last amended in 1992. They establish ceilings under which accounting officers may purchase stores both locally and internationally without first having written approval from the Financial Secretary and with no change to the tender procedure. The argument is that the low ceilings of three thousand for individual items of […]
A new U.D.P. town council was sworn-in on Tuesday in San Pedro, amid a pending legal challenge being mounted by the People’s United Party. Mayor Daniel Guerrero won by a very slim margin and was formally returned to office for another three-year term. But the fate of his current administration will be decided in a […]
Bernard Wagner enters office with an uncertain grasp of how well off the Council is. The Municipal Bond is tied to the City’s subvention from Central Government and other sources are not considered reliable. During Friday’s House meeting, Prime Minister Dean Barrow accused Caribbean Shores area rep Kareem Musa of preparing for the Council to […]
Belize and the European Union have reached agreement on nearly twenty-nine million dollars in financing for projects in the health and public finance management sectors. The agreements were signed in Belize City today between Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the E.U.’s Ambassador to Belize, Malgorzata Wasilewska. The majority, about twenty-five-point-six million dollars, is for upgrading […]
If you have a passion for acting or just want to see if you have what it takes, then you might want to head out and audition for a part in the “Life or Death” TV series. It is a show that will be filmed in Belize later this year as a fictional political thriller […]
Fifty-thousand dollars – that’s how much Cellular Plus Belize won in a raffle. The Rotary Club of Belize Sunrise played a willy-wonka golden ticket style raffle to raise funds for its projects. At the end of the raffle, fewer than eight hundred tickets were sold, which translates to some seventy to eighty thousand dollars. After […]
A high school student is dead following a pool party at the Pickwick Club. Oluwukemi Miracle Ojo, better known as Miracle, started her Saturday at a classmate’s birthday party at the Pickwick Club Swimming Pool. The party reportedly started around eleven that morning and Miracle was last seen alive around twelve-thirty or so. But it […]
Mayor-elect Bernard Wagner and his team of ten councilors will be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon, exactly a week after their landmark victory in municipal elections on March seventh. The P.U.P. nominally won six of ten divisions and votes in the other four, knocking off the veteran United Democratic Party slate led by Dion Leslie. […]
The Council has seen two fairly high-profile departures in the days immediately following the municipal elections. Joe Bradley, former Mayor Darrell Bradley’s father, resigned from his post as a compliance officer with the Council; he also acts as a talk-show host on the U.D.P.’s Wave Radio. Shane Williams, the recently-appointed public relations officer, has also […]
Former Mayor Darrell Bradley left behind several incomplete projects and plans, most notably the Commercial Center and City Hall upgrade. In the area of streets, a considered hallmark of the past Council, contracts for nine street upgrades with RJB Construction had been signed last November. The affected streets are West Canal and East Canal; Eyre […]
The honeymoon will be short for Wagner and company as the first hundred days of his administration begin. In addition to looking into Council finances and figuring out the fate of the various projects in which the City is embroiled, there is an urgent need, according to the new Mayor, for the City to undergo […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow also addressed lingering issues regarding practices on taxes which have been identified as harmful by the European Union’s Code of Conduct group. By the end of this year, these must be reviewed and updated to ensure Belize cannot be listed as a non-cooperative jurisdiction for tax purposes. Belize must comply, says […]
In the Budget tabled in the House of Representatives last Friday, the government proposes spending of one hundred and fifty-seven million dollars for its capital program – nearly sixty-two million in locally funded Capital Two expenditure and more than ninety-three million in externally funded Capital Three expenditure. While an increase over the projected outturn of […]
On March fifth, Justice Lennox Kirkwood Campbell took the oath as a judge on the Belize Court of Appeals. Campbell is from Jamaica and a retired justice of the Supreme Court. He succeeds Franz Parke, who left under a cloud of scandal shortly after his judicial appointment. Campbell and fellow Justice Murrio Ducille, along with […]
Concerns have been raised about a trio of bills introduced by Prime Minister Dean Barrow in Friday’s House of Representatives meeting. The amendments to the Immigration, Belizean Nationality and Passports Acts, respectively, speak to dividing the functions related to immigration and nationality services and in the case of the Immigration Act, regularizing the use of […]
The Opposition Leader John Briceño asked the government side how much G.O.B. has paid to local and foreign attorneys in connection with the arbitration cases in the U.S. courts. There are about four and Belize has had no success with any. But Prime Minister Dean Barrow dodged an immediate answer by questioning Briceño’s wording. […]
Earlier we told you that a number of organizations and bodies have been publicly condemning the recent spate of violence on young children and women, particularly during child stimulation month and on the heels of International Day of Women. The Belize National Teachers Union, the Bar Association and the P.U.P.’s United Women’s Group say that […]
Things got a bit testy at the start of Friday’s house meeting, during the section reserved for questions for ministers. Opposition Leader John Briceño wanted to know when audits of the Public Utilities Commission would be made publicly available. Weeks ago, there were reports of mismanagement at the PUC – allegations that the commission has […]
Concerns have been raised over a trio of important Government oversight posts that seemed to be neglected. Ombudsman Lionel Arzu is halfway to being re-appointed for another one-year term after the originating motion passed through the House. But Prime Minister Dean Barrow says it will be considerably more difficult to appoint a new Contractor General […]
And finally from the House tonight: Friday may have been Budget day, but the atmosphere in the National Assembly was still dominated by Wednesday’s municipal elections. After mutual congratulations and some bragging by Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Opposition Leader John Briceño, P.U.P. Caribbean Shores Area Representative Kareem Musa called out the Prime Minister for […]
The long-awaited first and second reading of the General Revenue and Appropriation Bill dominated today’s proceedings at the House of Representatives. The budget for the 2018-2019 financial year is for one point one eight three billion dollars in revenue, which is slightly less than last year. The Government’s total spending comes up to slightly more […]
