But, the topic for which Briceno called the briefing was to keep up the pressure on the Integrity Commission and the Barrow Administration. The PUP want the Integrity Commission to dig deeper into the finances of all the elected politicians, but especially the UDP Ministers.
As we reported, the Commission sent out a request asking elected representatives to furnish their accounts going back 5 years, but then, they later reversed that decision. After getting a legal opinion, the Commission decided that they would only look into last year's accounts, and the Opposition says that this isn't enough. In fact, they blamed the Government, even though this was a decision from the Integrity Commission.
Today, Briceno broke it down, and he explained why his party believes that the decision is not a real attempt to keep the Government Minister's honest. Here's how he put it:
Hon. John Briceno, PUP Leader
"As I understand, the commission's arguments are threefold; One is that they say the law is not very clear. Two, is that they're saying they can't prosecute. If you look at the Act section 58, unless otherwise specified under the provisions of the Act "A prosecution of any offense or penalties under the act shall be commenced within five years from the date when the cause from the action proceed." The integrity commission can look up to 5 years and if they see anything that cause the attention, looks suspicious or is questionable, then they can pass it on to the DPP for the DPP to decide whether they are going to prosecute or not."
"The commission does not have the authority to tell representatives not to file. The law is very clear; everybody must file every year, but in this case they can't go beyond 5 years for any prosecution so at the very least let us start to file from 2011."
"Three, based on a letter that a UDP minister had and a UDP lawyer wrote to the commission stating that it would be very difficult to get records 5 years back. That is a very weak argument that you don't have the records to present to the integrity commission. You can go to the bank or the credit union and they're going to give you the record, whatever letters that you need for every year because they have that on their records. If you have a business, obviously the records are there, if you have land holding, the papers are there. So I think that's very weak."
"I feel strongly that the People's United Party position is very clear that we at the very least need to file from 2011 - 2016. I believe that the Prime Minister has a moral responsibility to this nation. He was elected on a platform against corruption, that he was not going to tolerate corruption. You remember the famous words of the double edge machete? In 2004, that he was not going to tolerate the whiff of corruption. Even if the integrity commission doesn't have the legal authority to demand for ministers and representatives to file from 2011, the Prime Minister has a moral responsibility to this nation. We have seen how the life style has changed for some of these ministers. Many of them were in the verge of bankruptcy in 2008 and now there are serious allegations against many of these ministers that many of them are considered now multi-millionaires. This country needs to know where that wealth came from."
Today, the BNTU sent out a release saying that it, quote, "totally rejects the proposal of the Integrity Commission to waive the submission, by elected persons, of their records for the past five years and only accepting submissions for the past year." End quote.
Viewers will remember that the BNTU forced the appointment of the integrity commission. Their statement continues, quote, "The BNTU re-iterates that one of our 8 demands to the Government of Belize in September of 2016, did not request the implementation of a "Rubber Stamp" Commissions, but one that would be transparent, accountable, credible, and of integrity" End quote.
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