The Senate Special Select Committee has been watercooler talk across Belize since hearings resumed at the end of April. For better or worse, it has been dominated by the behavior of the ruling party, whose members have consistently disparaged the hearing both inside and outside of the National Assembly, and staged a violent insurrection at […]
Will there be an increase in the amount of money that comes out of your paychecks for social security? That is yet to be seen, but on Tuesday, S.S.B. C.E.O. Doctor Colin Young confirmed that by next year, there will be an increase in the value of contributions per employee to the S.S.B. Early this […]
According to Doctor Young, the investment income of the S.S.B. in the utility companies, the private sector and the agricultural industry has been keeping the fund buoyant over the years. But in the case of agriculture, that too is unstable based on several factors. Dr. Colin Young, C.E.O., S.S.B. “It is that income that […]
This week, Belize Sugar Industries Limited’s managers and senior officials are in meetings in Orange Walk Town, reviewing the recently gone sugar cane milling season. It was a record-breaking and successful season beyond the industry’s imagination. Prices of fifty-seven dollars per ton of cane, while not reaching the lofty heights of neighbors Mexico or elsewhere, […]
Seven years ago, the Belize Co-Generation Energy Project kicked off at Tower Hill, Orange Walk. It uses bagasse from milled sugar to provide up to twenty-five megawatts of electricity for the national electricity grid and another five for the B.S.I. plant itself. But there are concerns that the plant has not been reaching capacity and […]
The story of the used B.D.F. uniforms…everyone has weighed in from the respective government ministries, including home affairs and defense. Those worn military garbs were all listed for destruction by the Ministry of Finance and a contract was subsequently awarded to a private citizen, who did not dispose of all the items. A joint operation […]
It’s now official: Mayor of Belize City Darrell Bradley will not run for a third term in office. A decision not to contest the coming internal convention for the United Democratic Party brings to an end six turbulent, but productive years for the attorney-turned-politician and the city he transformed. Prime Minister and U.D.P. Leader Dean […]
Over a million and a half Belize dollars in forensic equipment was handed over to the Ministry of Home Affairs today. The donation, gifted by the US Embassy, is to assist the National Forensic Science Services in its work to properly analyze evidence handed over by the Scenes of Crime Unit. As a part of […]
There have been reports that some sixty thousand dollars were unaccounted for from the GSU’s budget. But today Junior Minister Elodio Aragon says that the funds are not missing from the GSU’s information gathering account. He says that what happened was just a routine check to account for the monies, but nothing was taken or […]
The Belmopan Bandits won the Premier League of Belize and that qualified them as the team to represent the Jewel in the 2017 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League. In its first round of the competition, the team will face off against Nicaragua in a home and away series, which starts with its first game on August […]
Over two hundred children, ages five to seventeen, registered with Kaina Martinez’s annual track and field games held over the weekend in Seine Bight Village on the peninsula, catering to children from neighboring communities and as far as Mahogany Heights in the Belize District. The children, who are aspiring athletes, are training in various disciplines […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow returned to Belize from personal leave in the United States around lunchtime today. Reporters met him at the Philip Goldson International Airport for an extensive briefing on several national issues. The top story tonight is that the Government of Belize has paid the second and final payment for the settlement of […]
Does the Prime Minister claim to be hoodwinked by Lord Michael Ashcroft following their 2015 conference in Miami, Florida, where the details of what became the Settlement Agreement were hammered out? He says that while Government always kept a watchful eye out, he and Ashcroft mutually understood that a minimum amount of liabilities would be […]
Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte also weighed in on the matter from a legal perspective. According to the AG, the case will go before the CCJ in October. The crux of the matter, says Peyrefitte, is that government doesn’t see eye to eye with the Ashcroft Group as far as expenses go. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney […]
On average, four and a half million dollars is spent by government annually as it relates to subsidies on diesel fuel for the sugar industry. It is shared among all cane farmers, including miller American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries, which has its own fields. Now there are reports that it could be under threat as […]
The Opposition People’s United Party has been closely following the sugar situation. Following a record-breaking crop year and in advance of an expected downturn in prices with the leveling of the European market, American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries is asking farmers to proceed with the remainder of the current commercial agreement. While two of the […]
Mai does have some suggestions for the commercial agreement. He wants it ironclad that, with the accompanying investments in the sugar mill, that not a stalk of cane is left in any field in Orange Walk or Corozal – it should all be ground at Tower Hill. A.S.R./B.S.I., he told us, should take every opportunity […]
The family of Ashton Augustine in Dangriga says they want answers from the police because the seventeen-year-old boy was shot under what they consider an excessive use of force. His aunt says that he was with friends playing football on Sunday evening when on his way home, he stopped with his friends on Ecumenical Drive. […]
Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin has come under fire recently from the Bar Association of Belize for failing to deliver in a timely manner, judgments on at least twenty-nine pending cases. It’s a dilemma that the presiding justice of the Supreme Court has found himself in before, one that does not sit well with the local […]
While the Attorney General, upon his return to the country, has spoken with the Chief Justice, he had anticipated a similar conversation with attorney Priscilla Banner, President of the Bar Association. Peyrefitte is confident that Benjamin will complete his task in the weeks ahead; nonetheless, he walked us through the course of action that the […]
Since taking his seat on the bench as presiding judge of the high court, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin has spoken of the existent backlog within the judiciary, particularly in his address during the ceremonial opening of the Supreme Court. Ironically, he too seems to be adding to that mounting number of undecided cases. Isani […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow had a little fun with the Bar Association’s scolding of the press on Monday for what it called ‘sensationalizing’ its discussion of overdue court judgments on the part of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. It has decided not to take any action for now, as the Chief Justice has once again promised […]
The sixteenth Social Security Board’s Scholarship Award Ceremony was held today at the George Price Center in Belmopan. A whopping forty-three students from across the country were the lucky recipients of fifty-nine thousand dollars allocated for the program. That added to those currently enrolled, this year, the S.S.B. will be investing one hundred and eighty-six […]
The Central American Commission for Maritime Transport in collaboration with the Belize Port Authority, the Port of Belize and the Port of Big Creek is hosting the thirty-ninth Central American Port Forum. Over eighty delegates from eight countries, who represent port managers and administrators, as well as representatives of Ministries of Transport, port authorities and other related entities, will also be discussing the cruise […]
A few weeks ago, we told you about the call a few stevedores were making to ask CWU President Dale Trujeque to step away from the negotiations table. The stevedores, less than forty of them, said that they were not seeing any progress in the dialogue for the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The C.E.O. of the […]
