This evening, the National Trade Union Congress added its voice to the chorus of organizations asking for the company's registry to be publicly accessible.
It's part of their policy of transparency and anti-corruption. Since today was celebrated as International Anti-Corruption Day, the NTUCB lamented the fact that even after so many years of Belize signing on to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, UNCAC, two government administrations have failed to implement it fully.
This evening, the NTUCB President spoke with us via zoom:
Luke Martinez, President, NTUCB
"Today is observed as International Anti-corruption Day with a team that is very fitting UNCAC at 20. 20 is very important for us to pay attention to uniting the world against corruption. What we are here at the National Trade Union Congress is to see how we could unite Belize against corruption. If we could go back to 2003 where the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UNCAC Convention by a resolution and the vote was 54-4. That was a very vote in favor. In 2005, UNCAC entered into force and in accordance with article 16, the text of the convention against corruption was negotiated during 7 sessions of the committee."
"In November 2016, the Barrow administration signed an instrument of a session, submitted to the United Nations General Secretary after the senate had ratified that motion. Everybody got excited and say well we are finally going to deal with corruption."
"In 2021, United Nations passed a resolution to re-commit countries of the world to full implementation of UNCAC within the shortest time. Today, December 9th, 2022, 6 long years after signing on to that convention, we have not made an significant move. Maybe, the government could show us otherwise, but we have not made any significant move to address UNCAC and to address corruption."
We have a lot more from that interview, which we'll share with you next week.
