Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, and, the National trade Union Congress of Belize is one again pushing government to implement the United Nations Convention Against Corruption
They note that on December 9, 2016, as the world observed "International Anti-Corruption Day", the then Barrow administration signed onto the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
Nut, they say five years later, "Belize has not made any major significant moves to fully implement UNCAC and the UNCAC Steering Committee has not yet met for the year 2021."
We spoke to the President of the NTUCB about this yesterday:
Luke Martinez - Public Officer
"We want to encourage the government to remind them about the legislation that comes along with uncac and to remind the government to reinstate the steering committee. The more teeth we put in these legislation the more we will be able to fight corruption, that has to happen, we have to fight corruption, so we don't want tomorrow to be limited to fancy words and fancy speech and then we forget about what we really need to do and these are achievable goals Jules, every Belizeans wants the illicit enrichment act, everybody want that we strengthen the procurement process legislated, everybody wants that. Everybody want campaign financing act."
Jules Vasquez
"I think everybody in the public wants it but I don't think everybody in cabinet wants it."
Luke Martinez
"When I say everybody I mean the thinking Belizeans, the stakeholders."
But the government has introduced the Whistleblowers and Illicit Enrichment acts - but those are stalled right now as the unions are still reviewing them. We asked Martinez about that:
