And after 6 weeks of very bad press and successive exposures of self-dealing and family enrichment can the PUP still do right by the voters?
The upcoming municipal election could be a litmus test for the ruling party and Musa says he believes they have time to get it right with that much-touted procurement unit:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration & Labour
"What I would say to that, Paul, is that we are one year into our second term in office. We are four years out from the next general elections. The People's United Party government is in a good position to make it right by the Belizean people. We have an opportunity to fix procurement, which has bedeviled us for decades, not just this PUP administration, past UDP and PUP administrations. We have an opportunity now to make it right for the current procurement system and moving forward. And what does that entail? As the Prime Minister said, we're going to create an actual procurement unit. But in the meantime, we also have to put in place alerts for these under $10,000 payments that are coming out, because there is no way that the Ministry of Finance should not be alerted when a particular ministry is making so many payments in one particular day. And so there has to be alerts put in place. And as the Prime Minister said, anything over $50,000, we have to publish every single contract and every bid that was put in for that contract. And that may not be something that the people who are bidding are happy about, but at the end of the day, transparency and satisfying the Belizean public that they are getting the best value for money is what is important. So I think moving forward, we have an opportunity to fix that. And I personally think, while it may seem like a strange, estranged relationship, I think people have more trust and confidence in the PUP administration to get things right and so I think I feel confident that that's what we're going to do."
