It has taken on BTL, blocked BEL, and now faces a pending judicial challenge from BWSL in the Supreme Court, sure enough the PUC has had a baptism by fire fending off deep pocketed multinational corporations like Fortis, the Carlisle group, and bi-water Cascal.
But help is on the way; the Public Utilities Commission today received a grant of $500,000 from the Inter-American Development Bank. The money will be used over the next three years to bring the PUC up to regulatory standard which if you're a utility means, sharpening its fangs. The PUC will be aided to establish appropriate technical, regulatory and institutional frameworks to cover its responsibilities. At today’s launch, the Prime Minister was more than happy to open the ceremonies knowing that the grant is "free money."
Hon. Said Musa,
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the IDB. I believe this is grant money noh? Free money.”
Rodrigo Mayon-Giron, IDB Country Representative
“The first of them is directed towards the provision of technical assistance to strengthen the PUC operational capabilities through the transfer of knowledge and accepted best practices in the regulation of private utilities. The second component deals with the development and implementation of an integrated management system with monitoring and compliance capability.”
The project is funded by the IDB, the Multilateral Investment Fund and the Government of Belize through the PUC.