The House of Representatives is on recess as of Friday, so even if the certificate is obtained in the coming days, its enforcement cannot be pursued until the House next meets, likely in special session. In the Senate, the Chamber of Commerce came under attack from one of its own, Senator Aldo Salazar, for its […]
Godwin Arzu has been in the role of Contractor General since 2009 and his current two-year term expires at the end of 2017. The government has been seeking to renew his term for another two years, but the Opposition has raised objection. While the motion was passed in the House despite the intervention of Lake […]
The last House of Representatives meeting for 2017 was more even-tempered than usual, perhaps reflecting the current season. Members debated two motions and passed four outstanding bills, including the legislation for the oil moratorium. But while it only got passing mention in this gathering, the Universal Health Services debate still hangs over the National Assembly’s […]
All this week News Five has been covering the various reactions from across the political spectrum, including from the vaunted “social partners” of the Government. They have all told the Government to do its best to pay off the money and avoid further crippling interest or even litigation. The Prime Minister reiterates that the final […]
Jamaican-American attorney Franz Parke’s brief second tenure as a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Belize came to an end earlier this week. In the days since his departure, startling allegations regarding his personal and professional conduct since moving to the U.S. in 1980 have emerged. Parke chose not to fight the court case […]
In other judicial news, the complement of the Supreme Court is to increase by two starting in January. One of the appointees is none other than attorney Marilyn Williams, a former political candidate for the ruling United Democratic Party in the Albert division in 2003. Since then Williams has ascended the ranks, being a Senator, […]
Seven years of work has resulted in an overturn of the status quo ante regarding offshore petroleum operations in Belize’s marine territory. With little debate and bipartisan support, the National Assembly passed the Petroleum Operations (Offshore Zone Moratorium) Bill, 2017 this morning. Opposition Leader John Briceño made note of the importance of the reef to […]
The eagerly-awaited motion on Universal Health Services was not tabled today, but another money-related motion was. A forty-million U.S. dollar motion for a loan from the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was tabled in the House. The loan is to be disbursed in four equal annual instalments between 2017 and 2020, while […]
On the adjournment, a variety of topics were raised, usually about outstanding current issues. One is the ongoing battle between police and citizens, exemplified in the recent death of Edwin Antonio Baires Hernandez on Sunday afternoon in Teakettle Village. Police pursued the twenty-year-old Salvadoran national, following a suspected robbery and shot him in the right […]
Our last story from the House of Representatives is a positive one, and may even be anticipated in some quarters. There were wishes of goodwill from both sides of the lower house in anticipation of the Christmas season. And to make that season a little brighter, Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced that even with the […]
Auditor General Dorothy Bradley met with the six members of the House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee nearly a month ago. The meeting did not get into details of the 2012-2013 Audit Report, which found various irregularities in the Ministries of Education and Works, the General Sales Tax Department and Belize Defence Force. Committee member […]
The Belize Progressive Party hosted a press conference this morning at its headquarters on Vernon Street to discuss a number of national issues, including its position on the much talked about UHS debt. In the bizarre press conference, the B.P.P. took square aim at the prime minister and his predecessor for putting taxpayers at risk […]
The unpaid UHS debt continues in the news following the announcement that parliament is not likely to vote to pay the loan note that goes back to 2004 and was originally for thirty-three point five million dollars. John Briceño was Deputy Prime Minister when the UHS loan came to light; he says that his party […]
Last Wednesday, at a press conference to address the UHS debt, Prime Minister Barrow said that he had come into information from a trusted source that Lord Michael Ashcroft had visited Belize and suggested that he met with the People’s United Party. The PM suggested that the purpose of the meeting was for Ashcroft to […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow finally broke his silence today exactly one week after the Caribbean Court of Justice delivered a ruling in which it granted leave to the Belize Bank to pursue the enforcement of a ninety million dollar award. That compensation is in respect of a mounting debt which stems from a private loan […]
The Prime Minister is duty-bound to table a proposal in the House of Representatives at its next sitting requesting the appropriation of that eight-figure sum from the Consolidated Revenue Fund based on the ruling of the CCJ. In tandem with the Crown Proceedings Act and the Constitution of Belize, the process that government now has […]
According to the PM, the mandate of the CCJ does not extend to parliament so it can be struck down by a majority vote. In this case, he says the debt will remain unpaid because the CCJ cannot compel parliament to pay. This scenario will be a first for Belize for government to table a […]
With most ministers already saying no, the PM says that a conscience vote will end with U.D.P. parliamentarians voting against the bill. In this instance, interest will admittedly continue to accrue past the ninety million dollars, because the debt will not go away from the Government’s balance sheet and in essence, he is kicking the […]
The People’s United Party held a parliamentary caucus this evening, a meeting which lasted for the better part of two hours. Despite the lengthy discussion on the UHS debt and listening intently to what the prime minister had to say earlier today, the P.U.P. is yet to formalize a united position on the matter. But […]
There’s a possibility that the People’s United Party may return to power in 2020, and with the UHS debt being kicked around like the political football it has since become, it can land squarely at the feet of the P.U.P. So what would the prospective prime minister do to address the issue of the unpaid […]
Cabinet met in Belmopan this morning, ahead of a scheduled press conference for ten o’clock in Belize City on Wednesday, to discuss government’s position on the pending ninety million dollar U.H.S. debt. Last Wednesday, the Caribbean Court of Justice gave leave for the Belize Bank to enforce collection on the judgment for the loan which […]
Perhaps the biggest proponent for Belize’s signing on to the Caribbean Court of Justice as its final appellate jurisdiction in March 2015, was former Attorney General Wilfred Elrington. He was the country’s chief legal officer at the time of the transition from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. While he once advocated for the […]
According to Elrington, the C.C.J. leaves a lot to be desired, particularly since there is a total of five jurists presently sitting on its bench. He says that only one of its judges is responsible for the writing of judgments, notwithstanding the number of judges presiding on any one matter. Wilfred Elrington “One of […]
Elrington was critical of the court saying that the four-member CCJ is unwelcoming and has arguably had the most contact with Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay who has appeared before the court on a number of cases. Wilfred Elrington “I’ve never seen a more hostile court than this one and they simply continued to repeat […]
As it relates to the position of the People’s United Party, that will be taken on Wednesday afternoon at a parliamentary caucus. The party leader, John Briceño, returned to the country this afternoon and reserved comment in light of the scheduled meeting. Their position, however, can hardly affect the outcome of the vote in the […]
