PM Briceño Responds to B.S.C.F.A.’s Demand for Commission of Inquiry

In the north, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association has also issued a release in respect of the proposed commission of inquiry into the operations at the Belize Sugar Industries Limited.  While government has been advised not to proceed with the probe, the B.S.C.F.A. has expressed its strong opposition to that recommendation and has gone on to criticize the Briceño administration.  The Prime Minister told reporters earlier today that he would waste his time responding to the B.S.C.F.A.’s criticism.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I will not waste my time in answering the BSCFA.  I think and I will do what I believe is in the interest of the industry and in the interest of Belize.  We have three other associations that are working with the sugar mill.  They‘re not the only ones so let‘s start off with that.  I have said to them that there has to be proper consultations.  There were not proper consultations.  The way the commission of inquiry, the terms of reference, the way it was set out, it was a terms of reference for the BSCFA.  So I am meeting with the minister on Monday and on Monday we are going to finalize the terms and then we‘re going to proceed.  But if we were to proceed the way they want us to proceed, we‘ll be wasting our time because we are going to be taken to court and the court is going tp rule against us.  We are not going to appeal just because they asked us to appeal.  We are going to appeal if there is a case and it seems as though there is not a case to appeal.”