As you saw in our story, transparency and accountability in the Government Departments are key objectives which this National Digital Agenda hopes to achieve.
Transparency in Government was also one of the big platforms on which the Briceno Government was elected to office back in November 2020. We've shown you why our newsroom thinks his administration failed to deliver on that promise in their first year in office. And today, when we challenged the Prime Minister on that, he and 2 Cabinet Ministers went sharply on the defense. Here's that part of the Q and A for today's ceremony:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"Nothing has changed with our commitment to transparency and accountability and increasing the efficiency of government. That has not changed. But I need to remind you that PlanBelize is 5-year plan. Its not a one month or one year plan and you've been hammering this issue about transparency and if we are deliberately not wanting to be transparent. We have been doing everything possible. I think to this date we have been the most transparent government in Belize, certainly from the past 13 years and it will be good if channel 7 would sometimes recognize that as opposed to just hammering as if we don't want to be transparent. We are committed, but it is a 5-year plan and that is what we are working on. It took us a year to be where we are. We're changing the pieces of legislation that will allow us to get there. At the moment we are working in setting up a procurement office that will centralize procurement of government services and goods and we will also have a digital portal, so you can see what is out there, what needs to be applied, what's services you could offer to government. We are moving towards that."
Hon. Kevin Bernard - Minister Responsible For E-Governance
"You're referring to a procurement process. I want to say that the ministry of finance is as well working in collaboration with the unit in coming up with a proper procedure that will be shared and the IDB is assisting us too with that process."
Hon. Henry Charles Usher - Minister of Public Service
"In terms of transparency, this has been far different from what you all experienced. In fact, channel 7 made an issue about one cabinet briefing coming out late. Well, I challenge you to find a cabinet briefing from the last 13 years, because there was none, but every single week there is a cabinet briefing coming out from this government."
We also asked the Prime Minister if the Government's Smart Stream system could be opened up for scrutiny of public spending. He completely disagreed, and here's how explained why:
Reporter
"Your administration hasn't published or post any sort of contract awards, its revenue and its expenditure, so if its available please point us in the correct direction, sir, but when will there be a move towards that sort of information availability?"
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"May I repeat again, this is a 5- year process. We can't get everything done in day or one month or one year. For the very first time we have gone to the house whenever we want to do an appropriation bill and we explain item by item, something that never has happened, but you are picking on what has not happen, look at what has happened. We are going to get there, but it is a 5-year plan. I even went so far last week from the house since your boss was crying well, I still haven't seen the paper - I even went and I took the time, scan it on my phone and sent it to him and said I just went through every single item explaining what we are doing. We are going to get there, but give us some time and give us some credit for what we are doing."
Reporter
"Is opening up the smart stream system for public viewing and access at least the spending aspects of it, is that too radical an idea?"
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"We can't open the smart stream; we are talking about personal information. I think that that argument that Jules likes to ask well that our money, yes, it is, but there is also a lot of personal information that we can't open up, confidential information. BTL belongs to us, but we can't have BTL open us every single thing, because there are certain things that simply cannot open up. It is as we are asking channel 7 well you are a public entity since you are giving us information, then you need to open up, who are your owners, how much money you get - there are certain things we simply can't make public. It has nothing to do about hiding or being secretive or don't want to make certain information."
