BELMOPAN, Mon. Feb.1, 2021– Last week the Government of Belize announced that Prime Minister Briceño had officially signed the order for the formation of a commission of inquiry, which has been tasked with investigating the sale of government assets from the period of October 2019 to November 2020.
Hon. Briceño expressed his concern about what he considers the “fire sale” of government assets, stating, “When we were elected on November 11, and even before the elections, we were hearing a lot of stories about government… the previous government selling off a lot of the government assets in pretty much a fire sale and, in some instances, next to almost giving away.”
He continued, “Once we got into government, we started to realize the extent of what has happened, especially in the vehicle unit. The Cabinet felt then that it is important for us to be able to do an inquiry into the sales of the disposals of these assets.” Hon. John Briceño stated that he believes it is important to find out what happened and to take steps to ensure that such actions don’t take place in the future.
“It has not been the first time,” he said, “but certainly this time around it was obscene the way the previous government was disposing of government assets.”
“This is something that can easily be turned into a political football or political circus, and that is not in our intentions,” Hon. Briceño remarked. He said that he picked independent persons and people of integrity, to look at how these assets were disposed of, and to prepare a report to be made available to the public, to mitigate the fear of partiality. Those appointees to whom he referred are Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck, Mr. Marcelo Blake and Mr. Luke Martinez. Commissioners Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck and Mr. Blake took the oath and swore to faithfully, impartially and to the best of their abilities perform their duty to investigate the sale of government assets.
In his remarks, the chairman of the commission, Andrew Marshalleck, opened by thanking the Prime Minister for his confidence in the commission and their ability to get the job done. He later transitioned into a discussion of the steps to be taken by the commission as they move forward, noting that their job begins effective immediately after their appointment. “The task of the commission, as I see it, is conceptually a straightforward one. Of course, the steps that will need to be taken in getting these tasks performed might well be more complicated depending on what you actually find in the course of the inquiry,” he said.
He went on to say, “The task, as I understand it, is to identify all sales of government assets between October 2019 through November 2020; to determine how sales came about and the terms; and to measure sales against applicable rules and procedures to determine if all appropriate rules and practices and procedures were followed.”
Senior Counsel Marshalleck continued, “The way forward … is, once Mr. Martinez is sworn in, the business of the commission starts and the first task will be appointing a date for their first meeting and identifying the first witnesses that we will be summoning to attend before the commission to answer questions regarding matters raised by the terms of reference.”
Alongside these tasks, the commission is also to identify a venue and arrange for the live streaming of proceedings so that sessions of the commission can be broadcasted to the public, since Prime Minister Briceño mandated that the proceedings were to be open to the public.
Marshalleck concluded, “Once those logistical constraints (venue and broadcasting) have been resolved, we begin the hearings; we will go where the evidence leads us and hope that the inquiry can be concluded as expeditiously as possible.”
The current administration has expressed their belief, as articulated by Minister Henry Charles Usher, that “It’s important for the country’s sake to know what happened. The government’s assets [are] the people’s assets.”