Interestingly, this change occurred during the Briceno Government's first term in office. But, on November 3rd, 2020, only eight days before the General Elections, they - as the then Opposition Party - came out swinging against the outgoing Barrow government in the hopes of scoring some last-minute political points.
The PUP leadership was always strongly opposed to the Boledo contracts which the former government awarded to Brads Gaming Company - they maintained it was a bloated contract for political insiders and related parties.
But, how to find those phantoms hiding behind shell companies? Back in the pre-election period of 2020, John Briceno, the then Opposition Leader, and his team were only able to ground their criticism of the former government's contract with Brads based on their extensive searches of the companies registry, which was open to search.
Here's an excerpt from that pre-election press conference, when the Opposition Leader - who is now Prime Minister - asked the rhetorical question, "why the cover-up":
John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"A search of the company's registry revealed that Brad's Gaming is owned by Good Li Ltd, with 60% ownership. And Kim Y Chee, Mr. Brad's, the other 40%. Kim Y Chee is a well-known owner of Brad's store at Farmer's Market, Belize City. A company search revealed that Brad's has four directors. Kim y Chee Wood Lee limited, Sheffield Limited, and McRoy limited. We checked and found out that Good Lee Sheffield and McCroy are not Belizean companies. They are offshore companies registered in Dominica. This means their ownership is secret, are not available to the public. The owner of Good Li, which is the majority shareholder of Brad's Gaming Company, is a secret. We do not believe for a second that the Government did not know who owns Good Li. Clearly, the government must have known who it was dealing with. The question is, why the cover-up? Why the secrecy?"
The media will write a letter to the Prime Minister asking for the companies register to be restored to its full public status. The Bar Association also has strong objections to the current setup, we are told.
