And we also asked the minister for an update on the Belize Infrastructure Limited. His mantra was always "Kill BIL" and, in 2021, he put a pause on their operations. The director was also suspended pending investigations and audits on their contracts. Minister Espat told us today that BIL will no longer be operating in its former glory and right now is just using a skeleton staff for maintenance.
Hon. Julius Espat
"The director is no longer with us. What we did, her contract was terminated amicably, we transferred the management to the CEO as to the ministry. The role of BIL has changed since we got over. BIL will no longer build buildings. What BIL is doing presently is just maintaining 2 structures were left under its mandate which is the finishing of the finance building which is I think DFC moved in last week, National Bank will move in next week, the ministry of finance probably by the end of February. We are in the final negotiations with the government of Belize if BIL will continue maintaining those buildings. It is that building and the Civic. Thats the only responsibility that BIL is doing. So, it's a skeleton crew to be able to do that. In the meantime, we have been analysing their past contracts. Thats an ongoing process, that takes quite a bit and so when we have more information on that we will be able to follow up with you. BIL will no longer be functioning as before, we made it a point that all the projects that will be done under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development will be done as regular public service type work, meaning we will go to the contractor general, we will go to the ministry of finance, we will follow all the over sight regulatory bodies. We believe that's the best way. It takes a little bit longer, but I think that's the way to be accountable to how you spend the people's money. So we are following that pattern."
