And finally from the Minister of the Public Service, the government's fleet of about 1300 vehicles has come under manners. More than half now have GPS trackers in them. It's the work of the Assets and Utilities Management Unit led by governments Car Czar Ashton Longsworth.
The trackers disable the ignition of unauthorized vehicles at 5:00 pm on Friday. They also give speed warnings, shut down the vehicles after 5 minutes of stationary idling, and cut the engine after they cross the border.
We asked Minister Usher how this changes the culture of vehicle use across the public service, and how it can also save government money.
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service, Governance & Disaster Risk Management
"Well, I hope it's changing the culture of vehicle usage, to go back to your previous question as to the meetings with the unions. This is something that we had started. We established the three committees that are providing recommendations to the government.That's the Revenue Enhancement Committee, the cost saving committee, and the Pension Reform Committee. One of the recommendations coming out of the cost saving committee. And this was previously, in the cost saving committee, I think it was in 2015, 2020. I know it's in their recommendations, again, to put in place a vehicle management, tracking system. I can't say that the tracking system has been implemented.I think so far about 750 vehicles do have the trackers on them, and they can do the services that you referred to. They can, know when someone, a driver is going over a certain speed, actually a warning comes up in the vehicle if they go above a certain speed, if the driver is idling, the vehicle can be shut down, the vehicle can be shut down, for the weekend, etc..So we are hoping that we can see savings from this and the unions who chair the cost saving committee also believe that we can see, savings if we utilise the system properly. As to the culture, I hope that it will allow for a change in terms of the vehicle usage."
IMF Predicts Lackluster Growth For Belize
The IMF issued its concluding report on its most recent Belize visit today and it says that there will be "subdued growth in the near term while inflation has decelerated."
The report also notes that the poverty rate declined substantially to 22 percent in 2024, from 36 percent in 2021. They project that economic growth to decelerate to 1.5 percent in 2025, quote, "in line with the observed slowdown in stayover visitor arrivals growth and weak agricultural sector performance as a result of unfavorable weather conditions and fungal disease affecting sugarcane."
The report also noted improvement in tax administration while it laments that reforms to the Pension Plan for Public Officials have been delayed.
