BELIZE CITY, Fri. Apr. 30, 2021– The NTUCB released a statement last Friday in response to the claims by Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, former Attorney General, that union leaders had not responded to his efforts to get their input on what aspects of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption were to be implemented by the government, and for that reason, the UDP’s process of putting the UNCAC into effect had stalled.
Hon. Peyrefitte had made the comments on Wednesday while he was being interviewed by local media during a break of the Senate meeting, at which the budget for this fiscal year was passed. Hon. Peyrefitte said that the NTUCB did not respond to his letter in which he requested that they identify the UNCAC measures that they wanted to see implemented — a letter which he claimed he had sent as a follow-up measure after he had met with unions. He suggested that they likely did not even read the document, which included the recommendations.
“I personally met with the unions, and when we sat down with them, I told them, ‘This is the document. Now you go for it and you tell us what your priorities are in terms of which of these you want to see pass. I met with them months before the general election. And they did not get back to me. Did not get back to me to say, ‘of the things that you say you have here that were recommended by the United Nations, we want you to implement these’. They have not done that. I believe there is a high chance that when I gave them the document they didn’t even read it,” Hon. Peyrefitte told local media.
On Friday, in response to the assertions made by Hon, Peyrefitte, the NTUCB issued a release in which the union stated that during a meeting between Hon. Peyrefitte and the unions, Hon. Peyrefitte had informed them that the Government had not yet received the Final Country Report and, as a result, he was advised that no action could be taken.
The release stated,” the meeting was to discuss the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Executive Summary of the Country Review Report and to request the reconvening of the UNCAC Project Board that has been paused for over a year. “
The release states that at no time did the former AG make a request to the NTUCB for submissions regarding legislation. He did, however, inform them that the final report would be posted on the United Nations website and had pledged to send the self-assessment review of cycle 1 reports to the unions, which he did, the NTUCB release said.
The release further stated, “At no time did the AG make any request of the NTUCB for submission regarding the passage of the legislation. Had such a request been made to the NTUCB, the NTUCB would have complied with deliberate speed and courtesy.”
The union’s release went on to state, “NTUCB categorically refutes these allegations. The recommendations of UNCAC were made to the government of Belize, and it is the responsibility of the Government to enact legislation. The passage of time has shown that the former administration had no intention of implementing the convention or any part thereof; NTUCB recognizes that the delay and protraction used to stymie it is a clear indication of the administration’s hesitancy to move toward good governance.”