Barrow also took on the issue of Speednet or SMART - a company partially owned by the Briceno family - taking over the provisions of phone services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
Echoing what the National Trade Union Congress put in a letter to Prime Minister Briceno - Barrow said it weakens the nationally owned telecom service, BTL, in favor of an enterprise partly owned by the Bricenos:
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"As far as the People's United Party sabotaging BTL. Since they came into government, they have, I believe almost all of the government ministries and statutory bodies have switched to Speednet, to Smart."
"I don't see how you could describe this as anything other than a conflict of interest and outright corruption. What is happening as far as the government owned BTL, the Social Security Board invested, Tte Belize public Sector's Workers Trust invested BTL being stripped of all of its business, not just for private sector. That in itself would be shameful, but a privately owned company that is owned by the Prime Minister's family."
"And I associate myself with the NTUCB who has written the Prime Minister written his CEO, protesting these continued attacks on the publicly owned BTL."
"BTL is owned, is majority owned by the people of Belize. The government has an obligation to keep things the way they have been as far as giving the business to itself. Why would the government take away business from itself? It makes no sense."
The Minister of Health has said that SMART had the lowest bid for the provision of services.
Email
Print