_{Hon. Kevin Bernard – Minister of Health and Wellness}

Minister says there was no follow-through on previous KHMH bills write-off

BELMOPAN, Mon. Feb. 10, 2025

The Briceño Administration has set about writing off $54 million in unpaid hospital bills at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority (KHMHA). The period to be covered is April 2009 up to March 2022. There was a similar undertaking by then Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Independence Day 2015 to write off $9 million in unpaid debt up to 2014. However, Minister of Health and Wellness, Hon. Kevin Bernard has since told Amandala that their figures show there was no follow-through, and as such, debt of $20.46 million remains on the books.

According to the Minister, a search of the KHMHA files brought up a letter from an administrative staffer about the write-off but nothing more. Minister Bernard made the announcement about the write-off at Friday’s House Meeting. He said thousands of people will benefit from the move. In this case, he notes that a Cabinet Paper was prepared for approval, and Cabinet has since written to the KHMHA instructing the national referral hospital to have the debt written off. Bernard did advise that the bills as of April 2022 remain to be paid.

Asked about impacts on the hospital’s bottom line, the Minister said the debt was uncollectable anyway.

According to the figures shared by Bernard, for the years 2023 and 2024, the annual receivables are $6.95 million and $6.7 million, respectively.

_{Hon. John Briceño – Prime Minister of Belize}

Over 2,500 people to see fines for COVID-19 and minor marijuana convictions remitted

Also at Friday’s House Meeting, Prime Minister John Briceño reported that that same day, they were gazetting the remission of fines for over 2,500 people convicted of first-time minor marijuana offences and first-time COVID-19 offences. For the latter, the figure is 2,200 and for marijuana offences, people to benefit number over 500, according to Briceño.

The PM called it a memorable and high point of his administration. The process to see this come to reality started over a year ago. After the fines are remitted, the individuals can see their record for the offences expunged. As the PM explained, they introduced expungement legislation last year and added first-time COVID-19 offences later on after the President of the Bar Association, Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck pointed out that the Government “would have spent far less had these people not been incarcerated for fines owing, because locking them up is a far greater cost than the fines they were ordered to pay.”