Last night on this newscast, you heard Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca single out the Customs Department as being responsible for what he called "biggest leak" in government revenue. Well, the men and women of the Customs Department didn't take kindly to that "diss", and the officers at the Belize City headquarters held a meeting to agree on a strategy to demand that the Minister give a clarification of his remarks. What that strategy is has yet to be unveiled, but today, two representatives of the PSU spoke up emphatically for the Customs Department.
Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Home Affairs and Investment
[Yesterday] "Our own program is a combination of things. One is to tighten up on a lot of these things that we've been talking about and we haven't been able to do it because the political environment has not been right. One of them which the Prime Minister mentioned today is putting an international company in the Customs. We wanted to do that a long time but politically it wasn't right. Now I think it's right, the private sector is ready for it. So that's a good thing that has come out of this whole thing because people realize that the Customs is the biggest leak. Now whether it's please most of the Customs guys are great and its just that there must be a clique in there that's doing their thing and none of our governments have been able to fix it. So that will be one part of it, tightening up on lots of loopholes that were there."
Dylan Reneau, PSU President
"Those are some very serious charges that Mr. Fonseca was making and certainly that is usually the political spin that is placed on all of these issues. Certainly what we have gotten from investigating this thing is that it is not because of the Customs officers who they are claiming are seeking bribes etc., it is because of the political intervention into the process; not allowing the public officers to do their job. That's why they've been having problems collecting revenue."
Jackie Willoughby, PSU Belize City
"It's a total disrespect by the Ministers consistently, from the beginning of these consultations they have been saying all the corruption is at Customs. Customs is not the number one revenue earner in this country and it is my distinct views, after coming from the wider public service, Customs is one of the toys used for the Ministers. A system can only be leaked for as long as you do not put enforcement in there for it not to be leaked. And I can go into details about the system at Customs, of course we don't do that here because you and I know them. I call on the government now; it is time now to stop frustrating your own workers. It is not right to get on television and say Customs is corrupt and yet still expect every month I am going to bring you that million dollars. That is no kind of incentive."
We are told that the Customs Department working with the union will tomorrow issue a press release requesting that clarification from Minister Fonseca. The release will also ask the government for clarification on the Prime Minister's announcement that a foreign company will be brought in to work with the Customs Department, so as to enhance revenue collection.
