A FOIA Request for Info on Belmopan Land Purchase

The Belize Network of NGOs, in partnership with the Belize Council of Churches and other social partners, including the National Trade Union Congress, has written to the Minister of Health and Wellness requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act.  The request has to do with information being sought regarding the purchase of land from businessman Kenny Zheng, for the construction of the University Hospital in Belmopan.  Viewers would recall that the Government of Belize purchased fifteen acres of land for a little under seven million dollars in August, after deciding that the land being offered for the construction of the tertiary facility on U.B. land was not suitable.  The letter, written by Senator Kevin Herrera, requests information regarding the projected costs, potential impacts on local healthcare services, among other factors.  Earlier today, we spoke with Senator Glenfield Dennison.

 

Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator

“ The reference to the purchase of the hospital land, that position would have been taken by the social partners early on, but the delay would have been attributed to lack of information and so we thought it necessary to join forces to make the request because, other than that there is strength in numbers.  We represent the social partners in the senate and the oversight mechanisms that are existing in the senate may or may not be triggered depending on the management of the issue from the government side.  And so, we, as social partners, and I want to be very clear, we are partnering for the development of this country.  We think that this is an issue that needs ventilation, that needs clarification from not just a commonsense approach but from the questions being raised by taxpayers.”

 

Isani Cayetano
“Invoking the Freedom of Information Act in an attempt to get government to be as transparent with the information as possible has, over time, proven extremely frustrating for anyone who attempts to go in that direction.”

 

Glenfield Dennison

“That is so, and the process that would next obtain, especially if we tale the judicial review route requires that you exhaust the other options that are available to you. So whether it is in fact a lesson in futility, it would, in my mind, be a legal route if we are to make a successful claim before the court because the request that will first come, I imagine, would be a request for the disclosure from the government through the court.  But it would be incumbent upon us to make the request so that we can, by our evidence, show the court that we have tried that and that it failed.”