New year, new House of Representatives - and newly reconfigured House Chambers.
Today was the first working session for the Briceno-led parliament, but the new area reps weren't the only new thing in the House today.
The House of Representatives was wholly refitted to make it COVID safe.
But that's not easy to do when you've got 31 representatives, the Speaker, the clerk and the Sergeant at arms - a total of 34 persons crammed into a small chamber designed back in the 1970's when there were only 18 representatives.
Now it's 31, and there's a raging COVID pandemic - so there had to be major reconfiguration to ensure that the members could meet without spreading or contracting COVID-19.
Courtney Menzies attended today's meeting and opens our coverage on what the house chamber looked like:
Things looked a little different at today's House Meeting - and it wasn't just that PUP - all 26 elected members - are now on the government's side of the chamber.
The National Assembly needed to be reconfigured to be fit for a pandemic. Inside the chambers resembled the inside of a bank - with the area reps behind plexiglass cubicles.
Since PUP won 26 out of the 31 seats, their area needed to be extended to four rows - including an impossibly cramped third row - and now an upper bench - where the visitors gallery used to be.
The new arrangement - while odd in some ways - allows social distance and barriers, while accommodating 26 adults on one side of a small room.
On the opposition's side, the five members were properly spaced in the front row.
Another change is the new Speaker of the House - Valerie Woods replaces Laura Tucker-Longsworth, and she began the meeting by noting the changes and how the effects the COVID-19 have impacted society - and even this chamber is no exception to that.
And it was the Ministry of Health and Wellness who advised the Speaker on the best way forward. According to the Principal Public Health Inspector, John Bodden, they were approached in December to give their technical guidance, and he told us more about how they envision the new setup.
John Bodden, Principal Public Health Inspector, MOH
"In terms of what we were doing, we looked at the basic public health measures, the implementation of those, to ensure the area was safe, of course, as part of the protocol, the use of mask which is mandated, the social distance, and of course, sanitization. So those were the three components and beyond that we also looked at t a fourth component which is actually barrier prevention. If you notice in the house, it's a little bit small, so people now have new positions in terms of location and what we try to do is establish a safety bubble whereby they are confined within that given area by the plexiglass."
It might be more cost effective to, instead of purchasing 50 sheets of plexiglass, only purchase 31 face shields. But as Bodden pointed out, face shields are not the strongest line of defense.
John Bodden, Principal Public Health Inspector, MOH
"Many people are looking at face shields, from some publications, scientific journals that were produced, the research finds that the droplets actually go around the mask, so that would not necessarily be one of the best strategies in terms of moving forwards and ensuring that the environment is safe. What is the understanding or the science in relation to it circulating in the air?"
"And that's the reason why we ask that they wear mask and if they would not wear mask then they would need to go into the chamber, you notice the glass chamber that is at the door, if you're not wearing a mask you must go in there because we want to contain it. But if you're not wearing a mask and you're speaking obviously the droplets can spread and of course we're using artificial ventilation in the room and so that, which is the AC, and that can take it around and definitely the spread increases if you do that."
But while the House may have gotten a makeover, it's still the same old bickering between the government and the opposition party. It came to a head when both the UDP Leader, Patrick Faber, and the Prime Minister, John Briceno, engaged in a back and forth argument.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Where in the standing orders do you - you are not making a point of order. You need to make a point of order first, Leader of the opposition. What is your point of order?"
Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House
"Is it that I must refer to the UK parliamentary term of insisting that we have "order?" This is unacceptable, there can never be two members standing at the same time. I should not have to raise my voice to get attention. And this certainly should not occur on the first sitting."
Supplementary To Fill a Crater
And now unto the business of the day: it was a very packed agenda at this first working session: with 8 bills and 2 motions on the agenda.
But all that had to wait until after 11 ministers made statements about the state they found their ministries in.
We'll have all that - but first to the most important piece of legislative business; that is, the passage of a supplementary appropriations bill. That was presented this afternoon, and, before it was, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance John Briceno explained why it was very necessary:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"What we are looking at is that the previous government has left us - they borrowed about 510 million dollars this year. There is a hole or a crater of 300 million dollars that we have to find a way how we are going to close that. What we have to do today in the appropriation bill is to put the necessary monies for the emergencies that we have from hurricanes and the floodings and the pandemic. For instance, we are approving 15 million dollars for the ministry of health. We are approving 12 million for infrastructure to assist in the repairing of some of the infrastructure. We are approving monies for the Grocery bag program, because the UDP spent everything, they left nothing. So we have to be approving all of these monies. That is what we will be doing this afternoon."
PM Non Comital on Possible Wage Cuts
Of course, the biggest part of that budget is paying the wage bill. It's about 45 million dollars a month - right now, government is borrowing weekly to pay salaries and emoluments.
It's not sustainable - but we've been hearing that since the last Prime Minister was in office. So, when will someone bell the cat, and does PM Briceno have the will to do it? When pressed for a position today, he was non comital:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"As it is right now the wage bill and the pension bill combined is approximately about 80% of the budget and we in December announced that we will start, we have taken a 10% cut into our salaries as a gesture of goodwill to show that we are prepared to do what is necessary. We are going to sit down with the unions and with a blank sheet of paper and we are going to see what are the steps that we can take to be able to cover this huge crater in the budget."
Reporter
"Is the government now considering retrenchment in the public service and those who remain employed receive a 20% pay cut?"
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We havent considered anything. As I said we have blank paper and we are going to sit down with our partners and together we have to make the decisions and whatever decisions that we come that will be able to get us on a sustainable footing, we are going to do that. But we cannot continue to spend money that we don't have, because if we continue to do that then everything is going to crash."
Reporter
"Does government continue to borrow a million dollars everyday to meet salaries?"
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Right now it's a little less than a million dollars, but yes it's still continue to do that."
Former Minister & Fam Accused Of Land Fraud
So while the supplementary budget and wage bill are heavy matters of state, much of the political juice from today's meeting came from the statements by ministers. This is where 11 ministers laid out what they found when they got to their ministries in Belmopan. Now, you have to give a 10% discount for the usual political embellishment, but what the Minister of Natural Resources described was nothing short of land fraud, visited upon unsuspecting persons - who had given their names and social security numbers into the system for government assistance - only to become unknowing pawns in a much bigger land fraud scheme.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Deputy PM gave an outline:
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"It's a scheme that starts with ministers and their representatives able to get copies of the social security cards of the unsuspecting constituents who have come to apply to the offices for financial assistance. From there these copies of social cards would form the bedrock of a land application and those needy unsuspecting individuals would be the recipients of massively lucrative chunks of land, but they don't know. The lands are in their names, but they don't know. The lands are later sold to wealthy individuals, but they don't know. The money shared presumably between the ministers and their cronies, but they don't know."
Hyde outlines two examples of this - the second involved a man named Florencio Talbert - whose name was used in some very big land moves:
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"Florencio Talbert says he was very good friends with the then ministry of works CEO Errol Gentle or so he thought. Gentle had asked for his social security card a few times, but he was never told exactly why. Talbert says Errol Gentle even went his house one day for his social security card, but according to Talbert he never questioned anything, because he use to work as Gentle's bodyguard also. So one day last year and enterprising gentleman goes to Florencio and says do you know that you own some of the most prime real estate in this country. Florencio of course says no. So the man convinces Florencio to give him power of attorney so that he can acquire the lands from him, so they go to the lands department together only to find out that one year earlier in 2019 the lands that were in Florencio Talbert's name was transferred to Errol Gentle and to a company named Scorpio Development Company owned by Rene Montero's two sons; Rene Jr. and Robert Montero. All this happened and Florencio Talbert never knew. Never knew he was sitting on some rich mountain pine ridge land and never knew he had transferred the land. All this happened over and over again. Montero learnt well from Gaspar Vega you see, they put lands in unsuspecting people's names; their workers, their humble constituents and they are able to sell or transfer the lands without these people even knowing."
"Rene and his sons cooked up a similar scheme in the Young Gial McRay registration section in the Yalbac area. This area has prime land, absolutely fertile land. They say if you spit, things grow, if you stand too long on the land, you might take root. Nice lands in the Young Gial area. They had government put the lands in their family members' names, daughters-in-laws, nephews, cousins, village councilors, campaigners and then the lands are transferred to two companies controlled by Rene's sons. I think one of the company is Gosen Products Company Ltd. and Kings Landing Ltd. They put 80 acres in Danny Martinez' name in Young Gial, 79.841 acres in Thelma Savala's name in Young Gial. 100 acres to Myra Savala also in Young Gial. 80 acres in Geovanni X name another 49 acres in Geovanni X name another 78.45 acres in the same Geovanni X name in the same Young Gial area. 139 acres in Salvador Martinez name. These lands were all recently transferred to Gosen Products Ltd. who directors is listed as Robert Jaime Montero, the son of Rene Montero. The there is an amount that was transferred to Kings Landing Ltd., another company lead by Rene Amin Montero, 32 acres, several 25 acres plots, 27 acres plots, 18 acres plots - all in Young Gial - all transferred to Kings Landing Ltd. And Robert Jaime Montero got a land certificate from government for 311 acres, again in the Young Gial area. The man them can't get enough of Young Gial. Then he got land certificate for 19 acres and even a 2.83 acres parcel in the same area. They cleaned up everything in the Young Gial area. They even got some purchase approvals for land in that area, but time had ran out, elections came and they had not gotten a chance to pay. These people are classic land hogs."
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