Did G.O.B. Consider Compulsory Acquisition of Zheng’s 15-acre Parcel?

The Briceño administration paid a whopping six point nine million dollars for fifteen acres of land in Belmopan and that sprawling property which belonged to businessman Kevin Zheng will be the site for the university hospital.  The price tag for the acreage sold to the Government of Belize has been described by independent valuators as costly.  While the purpose of the acquisition is for a public good, many are left to wonder whether the Ministry of Natural Resources could have gone about obtaining the land through other means.  Earlier today, News Five sat down with former Prime Minister Dean Barrow who shared his thoughts on the controversial land purchase and the steps that G.O.B. could have followed.  We begin our newscast tonight with that one-on-one conversation.

 

Dean Barrow, Former Prime Minister

“There’s no doubt that in my mind, that that’s a legitimate public purpose.  When government decides to acquire compulsorily for a public purpose, one of the things that the land owner can always question by going to court is whether the stated public purpose, or the public purpose stated by government is indeed legitimately a public purpose.  In this case, if you are talking about acquiring land for a public hospital, it seems to me that there is hardly any doubt that that constitutes a public purpose.  The law actually says that when the minister declares something to be for a public purpose, that is his definition alone is prima facie evidence that it is for a public purpose, but prima facie means that it is rebuttable.  There is a presumption that it is for a public purpose which the landowner can rebut.  But in a situation where you are talking about a public hospital, it is hard to see how any successful argument can be made that that is not a legitimate public purpose. It is relatively straightforward, there is a Compulsory Acquisition Public Purposes Act which has been used time out of hand for exactly the purposes for which the law is designed.  So, once there is a legitimate public purpose involved, the government has nothing to worry about in terms of acquiring private property.  It is absolutely provided for under the law.  This is not anything peculiar to Belize, any civilized democratic, progressive society does afford that sort of right to a particular government.  The public interest, the larger good must be allowed to override the personal interests of individual citizens, so long as the individual citizen is going to be properly compensated for the dispossession of his or her property.”