CEO Responds to Veteran Soldier’s Benefits Concerns

A retired Belize Defense Force soldier who spent eighteen years protecting Belize’s borders, including confrontations with Guatemalan forces at the Sarstoon, has reached out to us complaining that he has yet to receive his pension. He says it’s been five months already since he left the military, yet his personal file is showing little progress in the process of getting what he is due. The case has sparked renewed discussion about the challenges some retired members of the Belize Defense Force face when navigating the process of accessing pensions and other entitlements after leaving the service. We asked Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of National Defense, Francis Usher, about the concerns raised and what is being done to address them. Here is his response.

 

Francis Usher, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of National Defence & Border Security

“I retired in March of last year, and I’m just about to get my retirement benefits at the end of June. The sad reality, and I try to – It’s hard to tell someone that they have to wait for something that they’ve, over twenty years they’ve worked for. That it, you know, it, it, it hurts you to tell them that but the process of calculating and getting approvals for retirement benefits is extremely lengthy. Let’s say in the case of the BDF, their package is put together at the force headquarters. It’s then sent to the ministry. I make it a point at the ministry, ’cause it crosses my desk, to review quickly make sure everything is good, send over to the Security Services Commission, who meets once a month. Once it leaves the Security Services Commission, it then goes to the treasury. The treasury then needs to calculate all of the benefits, make sure it’s correct, do a review of your entire package to ensure that the benefits were calculated based on the correct number of years, based on all the necessary criteria. They ensure that no one is being over or underpaid. Once the Treasury does that and approves it, they then send it over to the Ministry of Finance. Once the Ministry of Finance does that then it goes to the Public Service Commission. Then it comes back to the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security. Then it can be submitted for action. It’s an unfortunate reality and I do know that the government, specifically the Ministry of the Public Service, is moving toward modernizing the public service and that includes digitizing all the records. We are also doing that with the BDF and the Coast Guard. We’re early in the process but we are moving in that direction.”

 

We note that this long wait for post-retirement benefits is not unique to the Belize Defense Force.

 

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.

 

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