So there you have it two sides: those who sympathize with Roque Matus and those who say his design was flawed and inadequate. MIDHJ Mister Julius Espat seems to fall in the former category. He said if Matus's work was plagiarized that is regrettable. He also spoke about the odd-ness of a municipal body leading such a mean project and the unique history that went into that:
Voice of: Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing
"We made a decision when we were informed that they were seeking financing from, I think it was Taiwan at the time and that it would be favorable rates, either a very minimal interest rate or a grant. I'm not sure what it ended up being. And so we said, great, I mean, if somebody else can execute it and government and the people of Belize benefit, then we are fine. And we gave up the information to the city council we sent the information."
Jules Vasquez
"But with such an inauspicious, anomalous beginning, one has to be concerned that the final outcome, which is a new bridge may be not foreseeable because you start out bad, you end up bad."
Voice of: Julius Espat
"No, I see it a little different. Maybe the city council does not have the experience that MIDH have, and maybe that's why some of the initial errors were made. But with the scrutiny that you are putting on and the microscope that they will be under, I can nearly guarantee you that they will have to produce something that is worthy of the Belizean people."
"Even though it is not a perfect scenario, even though I am biased because I believe in the ministry of infrastructure development, but I am part of a government and if the ministry of finance who decides who will do the project, make a decision in their wisdom, I will have to respect that."
Jules Vasquez
"A functionary from the ministry of economic transformation as it is now called, told me that, well, the government paid M&M or his contracting agent for this design and it then becomes theirs. They can do with it as they wish."
Voice of: Julius Espat
"Yes, that is true, but you can't put your stamp on it. says that you did it. That's the only difference. The government of Belize owns the design because the government of Belize paid for it. But that does not mean that somebody can take that design and put their logo and their stamp and claim that they were the designers."
"But we are not fighting with central government or with the Ministry of Economic Development. It's never been a fight. We are service providers at the Ministry of Infrastructure Development. We do what is requested of us."
"We came up with the proposal of the entire George Price Highway Rehabilitation Project, which included that bridge and a couple others. I think it's not a problem of the city council. This is my humble opinion."
"It is a problem of the foreign designers that if they did what you said they did. Because put it this way, Jules. Anybody want to build on bridge and put it under their their portfolio. they're excited. It's an exciting project. Why would the city council not want to be a part of it? So in their inexperience, they are taking on this responsibility, and that's why the errors that you see happening are happening."
"It's excitement. If what you're saying is true, then the blame is solely on the designers that, as you're saying, foreign designers. I understand that they're from Beirut. And if the Ministry of Economic Development in their wisdom has decided that they want somebody else to implement the project, we don't really have a problem with that."
"So it's not that we are fighting. Never have we had that kind of conversation. What is true is that our ministry is, in my humble opinion, the adequate ministry to execute projects of that type because of the experience that we have, because of the professionalism that we have, and nobody is perfect."
"But if you go with professional leadership, you minimize the errors. And that's why I see that the Ministry of Economic Development decides that the city council should take the lead. Well, fine. That's all right."
"And so what we did when that request came in is we provided to the city council the documentation that was requested. But if you alter somebody's product and use the same product, then at least you have to acknowledge who the author is or who the designer is."
"It's like writing a book. If Jules Vasquez asked somebody to do his biography, which I assume will be done one day, and then at the end of that biography, you decide that you don't want that person to continue, and you give it to somebody else, then that person cannot use all that investigative work and all that analysis that he has done and claim it for his own. He has to acknowledge if he will use a portion of it or most of it that somebody else did the work and he just compiled the information."
We also interviewed the chief engineer about it - he feels much like his Minister does. But, due to time constraints, we'll have the full story plus news about the lawyer's letter to Matus and 7News in tomorrow's news.
