It's an issue which might have been explosive two years ago but with the Musa administration in an extended freefall through countless clouds of scandal, the resignation of the majority of the members of the Governance Improvement Commission has hardly gained any public traction.
Still, it seemed to have deeply bruised the political ego of Musa's minders and the party apparatus has struck back. In Thursday's Belize Times a columnist took the resigned commissioners to task for failing the very standards of accountability they were supposed to uphold. That position was underscored by Myrtle Palacio, Director of the office of Governance Improvement when she was featured on the PUP show 'Forefront' last night. She made it plain: the commission spent $200,000, so where's the product?
Myrtle Palacio,
"My understanding of this particular organization is that a little over $200,000 has been spent, by this particular organization, in stipends, in salaries, in travel for meetings, and in food for meetings. I don't know, and I'm being provocative when I say, I know the answer, I don't know if any reports went out to the public before since 2004 and was done since 2004 and any accounting to us as the public as to what was spent since 2004 and I'm just being a little provocative there."
Those members that resigned and now have to answer those less than rhetorical questions include PUP Belmopan Mayor Anthony Chanona, Business Senator Godwin Hulse, lecturer Luz Longsworth and Chairman David Gibson.
