And, there's one more bit from yesterday's two hours Prime Ministerial Press Conference which we did not get to add to last night's news. We asked the Prime Minister about two buildings being rented for public purposes. First, the Ministry of the Public Service is renting a building owned by Santiago Castillo Limited for the Vital Statistics Unit, and, second, the Police Department is renting a building controlled by Antony Boots Martinez for one of its precinct houses. The Prime Minister bristled at the suggestion that this was somehow improper.
Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"The complaints about the building in which the Vital Statistics Unit was housed are legion. You say okay - let us move. San Cas has a building that used to house the DPP, it was okay then before he was a minister of government; we paid a fair rent. The Supreme Court by way of the ruling given in the election petition challenges made it absolutely clear that there is nothing wrong with government renting premises from a minister. So here it is, we improved in terms of the public - the appearance and the convenience with regards to the Vital Statistics Unit, a place that they have to go for birth papers and so on. But you raised a specter of some type of conflict interest because that is the building that we rent. As far as I am concerned once it is a fair price and it is not that you go and do a valuation and you see comparatively that a building like this goes for $5,000 a month and we are paying $10,000 a month - there is absolutely nothing wrong with government renting that building from the Santiago Castillo company which obviously the minister has interest.
In terms of the precinct police offices at the corner of Kut Avenue and Euphrates Avenue - again it was sent to me and I have to approve the rent and I said I am not approving this because of the rent. I know that the honorable Minister who is my boon companion had premises there. I told them to justify the rent to me and they came back and we renegotiated and the police put up a rental fee. The FS was the person who who discussed it with me was persuaded was perfectly reasonable and then under those bases I had absolutely no difficulty approving the contract in a flourish and curly Q at the end of my signature. Because again Jules it is located at a critical strategic spot and the police are doing their job - should I say to them NO? What should I say to them? You must do without services policing because those premises may be owned by Minister Boots."
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