Another interesting question was the one put to the Minister of Economic Development, Erwin Contreras. It's about the millions of dollars in economic assistance from the European Union that have been lost because the contracts or the executions were mishandled in Belize. The project is called "Accompanying Measures for Sugar" - a project worth a total of 152 million dollars programmed for everything from early childhood training, to crop diversification, to cattle sweeps,
so that Belize's sugar industry, and northern Belize in general could be competitive when subsidies are phased out. And it's not just money for institutional strengthening; 76 million was earmarked for upgrading roads, but Belize only tapped into 56 million - which paved 46 miles and rehabilitated 47 miles. That's because Belize could not meet deadlines or quality standards set out by the European Union. Contreras explained why and how many millions and how many miles were lost - basically, to ineptitude or inefficiency:...
Hon. Erwin Contreras, Minister of Economic Development
"The EU has processes and procedures are strict deadlines for the use of funds. If the deadlines are missed, they funds literally becomes unavailable. Under the AMS program, funds have been unavailable for the upgrade of the Orange Walk Town to Progresso Village Road, which the contract was given to Bella Vista group. This project was a failure due to the design flaws and issues with the contractor. The Corozal Town bypass for a total length of 9 miles, funds totaling 11 million for this project became unavailable, due to the late submission of design, drawing, compounded by differences in views between the GOB and the EU with regards to the road design. However, GOB is in discussion with an IFI to get funding to execute this project."
Contreras said that despite difficulties the cooperation with the European Union is considered an overall success.
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