Majority of National Trade Union Congress votes to take Government to court over University Hospital land deal

Posted: Friday, August 30, 2024. 10:58 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: A majority of member unions of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize have voted to start legal action against the Government over the purchase of land valued at $610,000 to build the future University Hospital for $6.9 million.

President Luke Martinez says the unions do not consider the matter a “done deal” as Prime Minister John Briceño asserted on Wednesday. This is not, he told reporters today, how the Government will meet its good governance goals and remain accountable to the people of Belize.

Martinez also called for the Finance and Audit Reform Act to be toughened to ensure criminal sanctions against any official found to have done wrongdoing, suggesting that the Prime Minister, Minister of Health, and the businessman who sold the land would have faced arrest in a different scenario.

Earlier this week, Minister Kevin Bernard maintained there was nothing legally to challenge the deal in court.

In related news, Martinez, who represents the NTUCB on the University of Belize’s Board of Trustees, said there was no opportunity to discuss why the particular parcel of land offered to the Government originally for the hospital was chosen and how and added that the Government appears to be “premeditated” in its actions.

The Congress will address the line Ministries involved in the purchase – Finance, Health, Natural Resources, and others – to obtain information about the situation with the land via the Freedom of Information Act. Other social partners are expected to join in with obtaining the required information.

Martinez also called on international financial institutions, the diplomatic corps, and supranational organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to send their experts to analyze the area and draw their own constitutions, and not take the Government’s word for it.

 

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