The president of the Public Service Union (PSU), Mr. Dean Flowers, who has been the leading voice in the country for transparency and accountability in government, listed a number of areas where he thought our leaders were operating well below par, when he spoke at a rally organized by the main opposition party, the UDP, last Friday. With a government’s handling of the people’s funds and other assets once again at the fore of the national conversation, and municipal elections slated for early next year, it was opportune for the UDP to seize the moment to try to energize its base. It was opportune too for the PSU president to hold the government’s feet to the fire.
At the rally, Flowers listed a number of areas where the government had bypassed or circumvented the Fiscal Transparency and Responsibility Regulations, Statutory Instrument No. 95 of 2010, and where key personnel in the system had been falling down on the job; and he made a call for “a United Nations-supported anti-corruption investigative commission to investigate high level corruption and strengthen our local institutions.” With “suggestions” rife that government ministers had favoured family and friends of theirs with various contracts, people are once again calling for UNCAC (the United Nations Convention against Corruption). One of the pillars of UNCAC is a Whistle Blowers Law. A report by Belize Breaking News staffsaid Flowers had called on the government “to urgently pass whistleblower protection...
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