High Cost, Few Details: George Price Rehab Under Scrutiny

The Government of Belize is looking to give the George Price Highway a major facelift, and it’s going to take a major investment to make it happen. Today, the Senate was asked to approve a sixty-nine-million-dollar loan from the Caribbean Development Bank. The funds would go toward rehabilitating fifteen miles of roadway, stretching from Hattieville all the way to Belize City. Several concerns were raised during the debate. The cost per mile adds up to approximately four and a half million dollars. The government acknowledges that the cost is high but argues that the fifteen-mile stretch of road presents unique challenges that must be adequately addressed. The sticking point for many senators was the absence of specifics on how the highway will appear once the work is done.

 

Eamon Courtenay, Lead Government Senator

“The government as was disclosed in the debate in the House acknowledges that the price tag for this piece of work is significant. It is high. the rationale and explanation is that the particular terrain between Belize City and Hattieville is challenging.”

 

Patrick Faber, Lead Opposition Senator

“When I saw madam president that we got a flash drive that it was a great lot of details. It is just the loan agreement. We still have to rely on what our colleagues are saying and we in the Senate are lucky compared to what the house members got, if I heard my party leader correctly, they did not give them any details.”

 

Kevin Herrera, Business Senator

“If you look at the loan motion, we are looking at sixty-nine million Belize dollars. This is not a small sum and so I believe that for the administration, the government to ask support for a loan motion such as this, you would expect that more information would have been provided. That information was not provided.”

 

Janelle Chanona, NGO Senator

“I am sitting here thinking that if there was the benefit of these numbers we could sit here saying that this is not enough. And then not be surprised, but certainly disappointed that there is another supplement. The information should not be withheld because the Senate has shown that we read and bring constructive criticism.”

 

Louis Wade, Church Senator

“When I see cost, I want to ensure that the remedy is going to definitively fix the problem. So it’s not just an issue of the cost per mile. The question is will it truly fix the problem.”

 

Chief Engineer Evondale Moody later made himself available to the Senate to answer pressing questions. The  loan motion successfully passed through the Senate.