And while Espat has made his fair share of snide comments concerning the bridge, what does he have to say about two of his colleagues as well as the signatory for the definitive agreement walking out of the Senate Inquiry without answering any questions?
He kept his comments reserved but stated that he believes government officials should be willing to answer questions. He added that this serves as a review of the processes we have in place, and whether they need to be upgraded.
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development & Housing
"I can only speak as an elected member of government. Our responsibility is to answer all the questions. I have had the privilege of meeting you since you started, and I have never stopped answering any questions that you have asked me. I can only speak for myself if I am asked I will answer if I don't have quite the answers, I will tell you I don't have the answers."
Reporter:
"So then were you disappointed when they walked out instead of just staying there to say, okay, we don't know, we can't answer?"
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development & Housing
"I can speak as an elected member, I can only speak for myself. Everybody has a different approach. The funny thing with that one, though, is that in the case of the Cabinet Secretary, his hands are a bit tied. He's bonded by the secrecy of the cabinet. So even if he goes, he can't answer what they want him to answer, the best thing he could have done was say, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I suppose. That's a very tricky thing. But it's important that it's happening. It's important that we analyze all our systems of government and we pose the question and we see for systems that we have in place are working or not. How will we know if we don't test it? Remember we only 40 odd years old. So we have to go through that process to see if our systems are really working for us. Most of our systems that we have in place, the secrecy of Cabinet, the way Parliament works, the way we manage in government is a colonial system that we inherited. So maybe it's time that we analyze it properly and come up with better solutions. And which is what the Constitution Committee I suppose is working on."
We note that Cabinet Confidentiality is not enshrined in the laws of Belize, but is a convention with ties to common law.
