body,td,th { font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; }
But the area rep for Collet, and the only other opposition member present at today's meeting, said that even if the board had someone from their party, it would still be, as he calls it, a slap in the face. He lamented that there are three PUP CEOs and the financial secretary on the board, and only three other non-politically affiliated members. He implied that that would lead to decisions being heavily influenced by the government.
Patrick Faber, Area Rep., Collet
"Whether or not you put an opposition member on the board, you would have to agree that the current composition is kind of a slap in the face to the partners you put on there when you look at what constitutes a quorum. First let's look at who are the members who will make up the board. You have seven members of the board, four of whom are CEOs."
"Four CEOs because we consider the financial secretary and chief executive officer of sorts, for all intents and purposes he is. Then you have the chief executive officer for the Ministry of Economic Development, then you have the CEO from Education, then you have CEO with responsibility for energy. That's four CEOs. Then you have civil society, private sector, and BNTU."
"Whenever you need something passed here, you have the four government representatives can do what they want. We're told that the financial secretary is the chair and not sure who is the vice chair but it's spelt in there somewhere it's a government member again and so these four government members can get together and can pass everything for this without, they can simply blindside, not invite, don't tell them about it and make decisions guided only by the government and with no consultation with these stakeholders so it is a slap in the face."
He also cautioned the government and the public about making such deals with the United States:
Patrick Faber, Area Rep., Collet
"The way how some of my colleagues get up and sing you would America is doing this out of some great love for Belize. In fact, they're doing it out of great love for the PUP, the wonderful Plan Belize that they put into effect, the wonderful leadership of John Briceno, the wonderful government practices, this is what they're saying. This is why the United States woke up and said alright, let's develop this Millennium Challenge plan and have Belize be a part of it. Let's go down that road for a minute and please nobody misquote me, in fact the US have their ears to the ground I'm sure, and I'm not anti-United States but what I'm saying when you see the US doing something, it is as a part of a larger plan."
"And over the years what we saw from our beloved neighbor to the north was them saying you know what Belize you don't really need, in fact even though poverty was very much taking us over, the US was saying for years, no man, you don't need it, you don't qualify, your GDP is at a level where you don't need this. And now all of a sudden US woke up and said $250 million? I'm not casting aspersions I'm just saying we need to be woke, we need to pay attention to what's happening in the wider world."
