Today was the first sitting of the House of Representatives for 2014. And as has become practice rather than rule, sparks flew across from both sides of the aisle. Now, numerous bills were tabled and one was fast tracked through the three stages. But we start first with a story we had been following involving Minister of State, Edmond “Clear the Land” Castro. Now Castro has been in the headlines since last year for his alleged involvement in what is now dubbed as the visa hustle. He was allegedly receiving two thousand dollars for facilitating each visa. But on Tuesday night, it was about checks. We reported the incredible story of checks written on the account of the Belize Airports Authority. Some of those checks were issued directly to Castro and others were allegedly given to him to pay debts he incurred personally and politically. If the story is true, it’s an unbelievable fleecing of the public purse by a man who has been mired in controversy and has even been fired once by his boss for a corrupt land deal. Castro was conspicuously absent from the House meeting today, but he didn’t escape very prominent and focused attention from his peers on both sides of the House.
Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
Francis Fonseca
“There are cheques here made out to him. Cheque number zero-zero-four-nine-five-four in the amount of nine hundred dollars to Edmond Castro…Belize Bank cheque Airport Authority to Edmond Castro. Cheque number zero-zero-four-nine-five-seven in the amount of four thousand dollars to Edmond Castro. Belize Airport Authority cheque number zero-zero-five-zero-six-six in the amount of five thousand one hundred and fifty-six dollars and fifty-five cents made out to Edmond Castro. Man this is absolute nonsense Mister Speaker, absolute nonsense, and that is just a sampling man. I have over sixty cheques here either made for the members personal-use for him to cash or for him to use for political purposes or to help family members. There is a growing perception out there that corruption is eating away at this U.D.P. government and the Belizean people have had enough. And so it is a very important issue Mister Speaker and as I said earlier, our prime minister who started out on this very high horse and very high note of not being prepared to even stand a whiff of corruption now finds himself in the unenviable position of having to be defending everybody who is involved or alleged to be involved in corruption and it is eating away across the government.”
Dean Barrow
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“This is not corruption. The Airports Authority in the full exercise of their jurisdiction obviously assisted the minister on several different occasions. I will tell you right off that I find it utterly and completely distasteful and I think the Airports Authority and the minister are both wrong. So don’t think I am here making any apology for anybody, but call it what it is man. It is not corruption. He didn’t steal the money from the Airports Authority; he didn’t get the money under false pretenses. He obviously was of the view that the Airports Authority, which is a statutory body associated with the section of the ministry for which he is responsible, could be asked to assist him and his constituents politically. I don’t say that it is right, but that practice is as ancient as the hills.”
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