The opposition expressed concern over the fact that the Office of the Auditor General has not released an audit report in nearly a decade. Opposition Leader Moses “Shyne” Barrow claims the government is deliberately undermining the office’s efforts to avoid financial transparency and oversight. Here’s his take on the matter.
Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“The office of the auditor general is the supreme audit institution of Belize that plays a crucial role in the holding of the government accountable when it comes to the stewardship of our public funds. It is difficult to accept the prime minister’s presentation that this is not deliberate. It has been four years, prime minister lamented back in 2021 when Dorothy Bradley retired, and he was forced to reappoint her in 2022. Where is the plan for succession and you may be instinctively tempted to say well it is incompetence. I would not say so. I would say it is deliberate. If you have a dysfunctional office of the auditor general, guess what happens, there is no accountability. There is no accountability for a government that is spending billions and billions of dollars. There is no transparency and good governance. I am an outsider. I am not a career politician. You asked where was I when prime minister Barrow was here. I was selling million and millions of records little man. Tek it easy chihuahua. I retract that madam speaker.”
In observance of Caribbean Statistics Day, the Statistical Institute of Belize (S.I.B.) hosted its Second Annual Data Users Conference in Belize City today. The event featured presentations from various data-driven organisations, highlighting the SIB’s work and how statistics can be utilised to enhance their efforts. While statistics hold great potential, the conference also addressed both the strengths and weaknesses within the system. News Five’s Marion Ali attended the event and filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Today, agencies and organisations that deal with data collection and dissemination had representation at a forum organised by the Statistical Institute of Belize. The event had three objectives: to raise awareness of Belize’s national statistical system, to demonstrate how data can be used for policy and research purposes, and to look at the future of data in Belize and data innovations for production, use, and dissemination of data.
Diana Trejo
Diana Trejo, Director General, S.I.B.
“A lot of work has been done to enhance the quality, the type of statistics, the range of statistics that we do, timeliness, and our modes of dissemination; those things are some definite strengths.”
Diana Trejo is SIB’s Director General. She said that focus has been placed on enhancing the service, but there is still room for improvement in others.
Diana Trejo
“Obviously there are a lot of data gaps that we recognise, and these are in some very key areas, things like climate change, data on vulnerable populations, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ persons. We know that there are some definite data gaps that need to be addressed; even with respect to our ability to produce the SDG indicators, we are still not even halfway there with those indicators. We don’t have a formal mechanism for coordinating ourselves, and so because of this, we haven’t yet been able to establish things like national standards for statistics, national classifications, and concepts that we all adopt. But I will say though that these weaknesses are the things that we have taken into account as we are developing our new national strategy.”
Trejo projected that the system will have been improved over the next five years. A major part of that improvement necessitates the assistance of the UN. Since several of its agencies, funds, and programs rely on Belize’s statistics, particularly from the population census, it is willing to help in the process. Hero Balani is the Head of Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Belize.
Hero Balani
Hero Balani, Head of Office, UNRCO
“We’re looking at some of the future of data with some of the UN agencies, the use of artificial intelligence—big data in Belize—and how data users can really expand, but interestingly, we have signed, as you know, in March this year, a new project with the Statistical Institute of Belize. It’s called Enabling of the Statistical System in Belize, and it is being implemented by five UN agencies, including UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, WFP, and UNFPA. So this is really a proud achievement because what we’re doing is really bringing together the technical expertise from all of these agencies to support the building up of the national data ecosystem for the future.”
Currently Belize does not have legislation for a national statistical system; hence, a part of the project is to look at the legal regulatory framework. Balani says that a part of the UN’s technical assistance to the SIB is to also look at that issue. Marion Ali for News Five.
About a month ago, News Five conducted random interviews regarding inflation, revealing a disconnect between public perception and official statistics, which indicated a low inflation rate. However, today, Diana Trejo from the Statistical Institute of Belize acknowledged that inflation is indeed rising, with prices of goods higher than they were two years ago. She noted that while prices are increasing, the pace of that increase has slowed.
Diana Trejo
Diana Trejo, Director General, S.I.B.
“What we are seeing in our data is that the rate of inflation, meaning how fast prices are going up has been slowing. This doesn’t mean that prices are coming down, and that’s a very important distinction. It just means it’s not going up as fast. But if you compare the price level or the CPI 2024 to 2020 before the pandemic and pandemic-induced inflation, prices overall are almost thirty percent higher than they were four years ago. So, it is very true that while the speed at which prices are rising is slowing down, prices are still much, much higher than they were four years ago, in particular, food prices, the inflation for food has been persistently high. The underlying causes of why prices are rising for these items, we are not at this point able to say that, although we do know that we import the vast majority of the goods that we consume. So, if our trade partners are seeing higher rates of inflation, we will see that trickle down to us. And when our trading partners see inflation slowing down, likewise it trickles down to us.”
Marion Ali
“What about products that are locally produced? We have vegetables, we have meat products that are done right in Belize and the prices are also going up on those.”
Diana Trejo
“Yeah, one of the things to remember is that all of these products that are produced in Belize have inputs that go into them and a lot of the inputs are also imported Indeed. Um, a lot of them, for example, fuel is an important input. Um, for the agricultural sector, fertilizer is an important input.”
The population census that the Statistical Institute of Belize released earlier this year indicated far lower numbers than what was actually projected before the data collection event took place. Today Diana Trejo explained what could be the factors that have affected the actual numbers.
Diana Trejo
Diana Trejo, Director General, S.I.B.
“With respect to the population statistics, I know that this is a particularly touchy one because our previous estimates were much higher than where the census, um, showed us to be in actuality, but we do believe that what we are publishing now is much improved from what was estimated prior. Um, it is well in line with what we see in terms of, um, data from the Ministry of Education in terms of their intake and, and, um, cohort sizes. Year over year, the Ministry of Education has seen that. Um, the intake is, is shrinking, or at least the growth in their intake is slowing down. It also corresponds with what we see from the Ministry of Health. I believe just earlier this week there was a report that the number of births for last year was the lowest ever recorded. This is right in line with what we are seeing with the slowdown in terms of population growth. One of the things that we definitely saw was a reduction in the size of our migrant, not migrant population or foreign-born population. Um, and I do think it’s very possible that a part of this can be because when the pandemic struck, um, persons left the country, persons who are here, perhaps working, left the country and, you know, they didn’t return subsequently or they didn’t return by the time we did the census.”
Reporter
“Can you talk about the fact that the towns and villages will soon get new borders? Um, how, how does that affect the statistics?”
Diana Trejo
“We recently published our village or community level population counts from the centers. And the reason why this came out so far after the main findings, um, was precisely because we wanted to establish or agree upon a set of working boundaries for each of these communities um, with the relevant government agencies so that when we allocate households to a particular boundary, um, we are all speaking about the same community.”
While Belize’s unemployment rate remains officially reported at three percent or less, the real number of unemployed individuals is significantly higher. Today, Diana Trejo, Director General of the Statistical Institute of Belize, explained that this low figure stems from the fact that many people who are not working are not actively seeking employment.
Diana Trejo, Director General, S.I.B.
“The labor market is tight at this time and that is reflected in our data. We had an all-time low of two point eight percent unemployment last year, I believe it was and that was pretty much reflected in the experiences of employers. Employers are having a hard time recruiting enough people to fill the vacancies that they have. The agricultural sector was suffering from a shortage of labor and just generally, this goes along with what we are seeing in our data. Now, one important thing to note is that not everyone who can be a part of the labor force is actually in the labor force. Only about fifty-five percent of persons who are of that working age of fourteen and above actually participate in the labor force. So we have a very large chunk of our population, working age population, who are not at all participating in the labor force. At one point, we had a sizable number of persons who we classified as the potential labor force because they’re not working, they’re available, but they’re not looking.”
The Briceño Administration is borrowing twenty million U.S. dollars from the Caribbean Development Bank for the Development Finance Corporation (DFC). According to Prime Minister John Briceño, the new line of credit will support DFC’s ongoing lending program. The prime minister broke down the figure during today’s Sitting of the House of Representatives in Belmopan. He explained how the twenty million U.S. dollars will be utilised, while noting that the institution has loaned over a hundred and twenty million dollars over the last four years.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“This motion is to seek this honorable house to approve the government guarantee of U.S. twenty million dollars. This new line of credit is to support the DFC’s ongoing lending program. This is the breakdown that we want to do. For the productive sector, for small businesses we want to set aside eighteen million Belize dollars, for residential mortgages nine million dollars, for education nine million dollars for renewable energy and energy efficiency, four million dollars. I am sure the minister of education will be the first to tell you that there is a tremendous need there is for education assistance to our young people. We have a lot of very intelligent students and in some instances, it is impossible for them to make it just from their own resources. As a government we have been providing millions of dollars.”
Opposition Leader Moses “Shyne” Barrow criticised the Briceño Administration during the debate on the twenty million U.S. dollar CDB loan motion, stating it cannot be trusted. Barrow likened Prime Minister Briceño’s praise of D.F.C.’s achievements to, “Lucifer explaining how to become an angel.”. He also suggested that education loans should be more accessible, with a repayment plan starting after students graduate.
Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“Hearing the prime minister from a PUP government talk about the DFC is like lucifer telling us the criteria to become and angel. The DFC, I quote Evan X Hyde’s Amandala when they had the commission of inquiry under former prime minister Said Musa and brother Hyde’s quote was the felons that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the DFC under a PUP government. The Musa/Briceno government. So, while the opposition supports capitalization of the DFC, while the opposition would look forward to the capital injection in these sectors, we have great reservations when it comes to the PUP and the DFC. Could be why don’t have an auditor general or an auditor general office not functioning. I will get to that on the next motion. But this government is not to be trusted.”
Under the Belize Blue Bond for Ocean Conservation, the Government of Belize is required to designate up to thirty percent of its ocean as biodiversity protection zones. So far, twenty percent has been protected. The agreement mandates that twenty-five percent must be secured within three years of signing. Today, the Briceño Administration proposed expanding protected ocean space by five percent, designating it as medium-protection biodiversity zones. However, the opposition raised concerns, stating that fisherfolks fear this move could threaten their livelihoods.
Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“One of the concerns I would like to bring to you is form the fishermen. They feel that all of this conservation is hurting them. So, the more and more you conserve, the less they are able to earn a living, and it is a legitimate concern that is addressed by my colleagues, the standard bearer from the different constituencies that have an abundance of fishermen.”
Orlando Habet
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
“Belize has an international commitments but we also have commitments domestically to support our people and this expansion of five percent is the medium biodiversity protection which is to say rather than protection it is conservation, because it affords true the medium biodiversity designation for fisherfolks to be able to fish in those areas and do other types of extraction, compared to the high biodiversity protection which is no take and has no extraction.”
Tracy Panton
Tracy Panton, Area Representative, Albert Division
“In the Albert constituency we have fisherfolks in the conch shell bay community and they have been completely locked out in the consultations process. So, I would like to urge the minister responsible to kindly take a look at that when it relates to looking at expanding areas for conservation because indeed the fisherfolk in Albert are concerned about how this continues to impact their livelihood.”
In our weekly segment, On The Bright Side, we continue to explore unconventional forms of education. So far, we’ve highlighted virtual learning spaces, where online education is making strides at the primary level in Belize, and examined the Montessori approach, known for encouraging independence and confidence in children. This week, we focus on a long-standing yet often underappreciated form of education that plays a crucial role in serving a specific community—sign language. As a vital tool for communication and learning among the hearing impaired, we take a closer look at the process of learning sign language. Here’s the story.
On Friday afternoons in Belize City, Stella Maris School buzzes with activity as students participate in various clubs designed to promote their growth and practical skills. In a small classroom, teacher Sheree Thurton-Gillett works with hearing-impaired students, introducing them to or enhancing their understanding of sign language.Thurton-Gillett is on a mission to teach hearing-impaired individuals the language of the deaf—Sign Language. She is a special needs educator for children with diverse abilities. Although the institution caters to students with various disabilities, Thurton-Gillett recognised that inclusivity could be taken a step further. Recently, her latest venture has been the inclusion of teachers and other students.
Sheree Thurton-Gillett
Sheree Thurton-Gillett, Teacher, Stella Maris School “My reason here to have the sign language classes is to allow teachers and other students to communicate with those who can’t hear so that they can feel accepted and comfortable enough to share whatever they need to share because they tend to get bored and they get frustrated because they can’t communicate with others. Even though we can’t hear, to me it’s important for us to learn their language so that they can communicate with us, and for example, since I have only one hearing impaired student, I would like him or her to know, um, if they’re understanding what I’m teaching or how it is at home. You know, stuff like that.”
Sabreena Daly, Reporting “I’m standing in one of the busiest commercial places in the heart of the Old Capital. Mikado Textile Palace is not only known for its quality in fabric but also for its progressive initiative in hiring special needs workers. When walking through these alleyways, you’ll likely be interacting with hearing-impaired persons, limited to signing with each other. Or, when interacting with customers, writing on paper to speak to you. But how much better would it be if we actually knew their language?”
Teresita Gladden
Teresita Gladden, Staff, Mikado Textile Palace
“On a daily basis, we have approximately a hundred customers walking through our doors. We have Mr. Glenford and Shane that the customers interact with. Whether it’s with a pen and a piece of paper or with their phones. They would assist the customers with curtains, comforters, bedsheets, anything that they needed, or even help them. There are few customers that come in and know sign language, and they interact with the guys very much. But we try to also understand Glenford and Shane. Whether it’s by a piece of paper or some of the girls in here, they’re also learning sign language through them.”
Both of these gentlemen would have passed through the learning system at Stella Maris and are considered great examples of what inclusivity can look like for persons with diverse abilities. Sheree Salgado, another teacher at Stella Maris, urges everyone to learn sign language to improve communication with the hearing impaired and promote inclusivity.
Sheree Salgado
Sheree Salgado, Teacher, Stella Maris “It’s very important for us to spread the word of persons who are hearing impaired, or we call them deaf. It’s not only for those persons, but it’s for those people in the society as a whole, persons who will be able to communicate with them. So you don’t have to be deaf or hearing impaired for you to learn sign language. What I have to say to the general public as a whole, if you see a student or a person who is hearing impaired, it’s not hard for you to learn their language. You have to be interested, first, to want to know how to communicate with these students. And that’s the reason why we embarked on this sign language course that Ms. Thurton is doing right now. So that we can invite others to come in and learn a language so that they will be better able to communicate with these persons living with hearing impairment.”
And while Thurton-Gillett is working overtime to equip her student body and colleagues with the ability to communicate with the hearing impaired, she also extends an invitation to the general public to learn sign as well. Whether it’s for personal development or to add support to those in need, her message is clear: inclusivity. She firmly believes that everyone deserves to feel included, regardless of their abilities or limitations.
Sheree Thurton- Gillett “It’s just simple classes most of the time I’m willing to give classes to help them communicate with those who can’t hear or just to have them have something else on their resume. I find that it’s more needed now than ever because there are more hearing impaired students just coming up and coming out more. So we need to equip ourselves at least with the basic science.”
As of 3 PM local time, Potential Tropical Cyclone 15 (PTC 15) is located near latitude 17.5N, longitude 85.0W, approximately 210 miles east of Belize City. Moving west-northwest at 7 mph, PTC 15 has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and could strengthen into a tropical storm with winds between 40-50 mph before making landfall in Belize tomorrow.
The primary threat from this system is heavy rainfall, with 4 to 8 inches expected, especially over northern and central Belize, which could lead to flooding. Strong gusts will cause rough seas, and mariners are advised to seek safe harbor until further notice. Coastal areas north of the landfall site may experience flooding, and strong winds could cause minor structural damage to weaker buildings.
While the tropical storm watch currently covers Belize, Orange Walk, and Corozal districts, residents from Dangriga to Belize City should remain alert, as the watch may be upgraded and expanded further south.
The National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) urges the public, particularly those in flood-prone areas, to stay vigilant. NEMO advises residents to update family and business emergency plans, check food, water, and medical supplies, and assist the elderly and disabled. Shelters have been identified in the Corozal, Orange Walk, and Belize Districts, as well as in San Pedro Town, which will open if necessary.
Additional precautions include clearing drains to prevent flooding. Those in the agriculture, fisheries, and tourism sectors should monitor the situation closely. NEMO district emergency operations centers remain on alert countrywide, and the NEMO hotline is available at 936.
As the hurricane season continues, staying informed and prepared is essential. Follow official updates from NEMO and the Belize Met Service for the latest information. Let’s work together to ensure the safety of our communities.
