A Decade Of BEL Decisions Faces Senate Scrutiny

Prime Minister John Briceño supports the decision to launch a Senate investigation into the Belize Electricity Limited dating back to ten years. The Upper House is seeking to establish how Belize found itself in the energy supply and cost crisis the country is currently facing. As with other Senate inquiries, the commission can summon public officials to answer questions. Here is what PM Briceño had to say about the investigation.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I welcome it. I welcome it because we believe that from our end we have done everything possible. As a former CEO from BEL pointed out, this crisis came about because in the thirteen years of the UDP there was no new sources of energy when they should have done that. Energy, when it comes to electricity, it is not looking going to the corner shop to buy a flashlight. It is something you plan years ahead and that was not done. When we got into government, we were busy with trying to fix many problems, including with that. We were hoping that BEL and the PUC could have worked that out. Obviously, it did not happen, so we had to step in. If we could have found a way where both entities could have worked earlier in ’22, ’23, ’24, we would have already had some energy. But that said, now here we are, we have managed to find a common ground between BEL and PUC and the government, and now we are moving forward.”

 

Senators expressed support for the inquiry during the last sitting of the Senate.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: