Prime Minister John Briceño is tonight defending a series of questionable payments made by the Ministry of Defense to its suppliers, many of them just under the ten-thousand-dollar threshold. He says the payments were not designed to avoid scrutiny, but to keep the ministry moving
Did the country’s top public officer have a business link to a company supplying the Ministry of Defense, and did the Prime Minister know about it? Tonight, John Briceño says he was unaware that Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie served as a director of RSL Group
Will the public get to see the Auditor General’s report on the Ministry of Defense’s financial records once it is completed? That was the question we put to Prime Minister John Briceño today. But his answer was not a clear yes. The PM says he
Before auditors can say whether taxpayers got value for money at the Ministry of Defense, they must first dig through a massive paper trail. The Office of the Auditor General is now reviewing procurement practices, store management, and possible conflicts of interest involving suppliers to
Prime Minister John Briceño says he is not troubled by the new makeup of the RECONDEV board, even after public criticism over the appointment of Myrna Waight, who is seen as an ally of Minister Oscar Mira. Waight replaces Brian Mira as chair, but the
The Briceño administration is pressing ahead with plans to create a semi-autonomous revenue authority, known as SARA. Today in the National Assembly, Prime Minister John Briceño introduced the Revenue Authority Bill, describing it as another major step in modernizing Belize’s tax administration system. According to
Belize’s public sector wage bill is eating up a third of government spending, and now the Briceño administration wants to borrow eight million U.S. dollars to help bring it under control. The loan, from the Inter-American Development Bank, is being framed as a major investment
A lot of Belizeans have been asking the same question lately: why is my light bill so high? BEL says there is no single reason. The company points to rising fuel prices, heavier electricity use during extreme heat, climate-related problems affecting power generation in Mexico,
The Auditor General’s Office is preparing to review ten years of spending at the Ministry of National Defense, but it is also under fire for a backlog of its own. Belize’s latest government-wide audit still dates back to 2017–2018. Auditor General Maria Rodriguez says her
Opposition Leader Tracy Panton is questioning whether the Auditor General’s investigation into the Ministry of National Defense is truly independent. She is calling for a forensic audit, claiming the office has been compromised. But Auditor General Maria Rodriguez rejects that outright, saying politicians do not
