Viewers may remember the loud alarm which the Public Service Union sounded just over 2 months ago on November 20th, only 9 days after the 2020 General Elections. The Union sent out a press release saying that they were receiving persistent reports that the outgoing Barrow Administration was disposing of Government assets and vehicles at, quote, "obscenely low prices". They were suggesting that corruption was involved in the "fire-sale" of these assets to "now-former ministers and their political cronies".
This evening, the Office of the Prime Minister announced that PM John Briceno has signed an order to convene a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the sale of Government assets between the period of October 2019 to November 2020. The 3-member commission will include the Chairman, Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck, the PSU's representative, Luke Martinez, and Marcello Blake, the representative of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The Commission has been task with investigating the procedures and processes for the sale of assets by the previous administration.
They will seek to determine whether proper procedures, practices, applicable rules and regulations were observed, and if there was any, quote, "improprieties, irregularities or wrongdoings in the sale of the assets." End quote.
The Office of the Prime Minister says that if the Commission finds fraud, corruption mismanagement, waste, or abuse, it will pursue criminal or civil action and the possible recovery of those assets. The Commission's meetings will be held in public, and the dates and venues will be published.
