All this week, the Area Representative for Belize Rural North Edmund Castro has been in the news – for clearing the land in Crooked Tree, but doing so without environmental clearance. And while he’s been under heat, tonight, he’s the one bringing the heat. And his gripe is with the Social Investment Fund, and a hundred thousand dollar contract they’ve given to a contractor to refurbish the Maskall Health Center.
While the quantum of the contract is one peeve, the work that the contractor is doing has Castro outraged. That’s because the roof, complete with new zinc looks good from the outside, but inside, it looks like something that would suit a crack house, certainly not a health center. It’s that bad, and he told our colleagues at Channel 10 from Orange Walk today why he’s upset.
Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Rep.
“Well basically the same old roof is still there. All what they are doing is replacing the zinc and the windows as we can see but everything else
remains the same. If you notice the old board still exists, wood lice.
We need to stop the fleecing of the Belizean taxpayers. As you can see they are already sealing up some areas and the areas that are being sealed, the old board are rotten and basically it doesn’t make no sense to just change the zinc for $100,000 here in Belize Rural North.
In this part of Belize Rural North you can build a whole entire house this size, you can build a community center this size, you can build a health center this size with$100,000 – not just replacing zinc and some windows.
Well basically I made a report and the consultant came out and some members from SIF but the people from SIF insist that nothing was wrong and everything was going right and everything was being handled by the book and they were going by the bill of sale, bill of quantity, and all that kind of thing.
I am showing you now today that value for money for money is not here and I am really not happy about the way I see the tax money being spent.”
The contract was awarded during the term of the last government. When we contacted SIF’s Executive Director Oscar Alonzo this evening, he said that the project has not been complete and is under construction. He said he was not aware of the complaint about quality and quote “can look into it and verify what you are saying.” He confirmed though that for other reasons, the contract has been reduced to $93,000.
