And, keeping it on the subject of the Ombudsman, in the House meeting on Thursday, during the Resolution Recommending the Appointment of a Contractor General Motion, the Leader of the Opposition criticized the government for leaving the ombudsman office empty for more than 5 months. In response, the PM explained that it's now a complicated process because that office is being converted into a human rights office, which comes with certain regulations. Here's how that exchange went.
Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition
"The question we have is when are we going to see a new ombudsman? It's been quite a few months now, we have heard nothing on the reappointment of an ombudsman and I think that all these elements, all these professionals, all these institutions are critical to the overall health and functionality of our oversight mechanisms particularly because we are utilizing the public purse, utilizing public funds, utilizing taxpayers' contributions to the consolidated fund. So as we support this motion, we also take the opportunity to urge the government to move with some level of urgency in appointing a new ombudsman."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I think if she had been following up, I think what's taking place is that the former ombudsman brought a paper to Cabinet and just signed on to something, we didn't really think it through, based on meetings that he was getting from the EU and others where they're converting now the ombudsman's office to a human rights office which will then assume the work of the ombudsman but it's quite complicated. I think we're biting more than we can chew, it's really complicated so the attorney general is taking a look at it and seeing what kind of legislation we will have to put. We will not be able to
put, they person who will hold that office will have to be a trained attorney, that's one of the things, and we have a whole slew of other things they will be responsible for but we have to point out that despite the fact that we do not have an ombudsman, the ombudsman's office is open so people can still go there, they can still lodge their complaints and the people there can still help people so it's important for the Belizean public to understand, we may not have an ombudsman appointed at this moment but the office is open to help and to assist the Belizean people."
