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Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"It's really an effort to try to get improved performance in the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Lands Department. Dr. Barnett went in, did an excellent job, stabilized things. I think put as far as that is possible to do, a lid on corruption, but it's a waring job for any Minister to steward that particular ministry and that particular department. So she obviously was beginning to feel the strain and I think it is in that context that she approached me about saying that she would like a reassignment. I think Hugo Patt is young and strong and he's not completely new to that Ministry because he was Gaspar Vegas' deputy at one point in time. But I think certainly, from the point of view of a fresh look, a new perspective, a special burst of energy, if you will, this ought to work out and the objective ought to be achieved. Which objective is, to speed up the process flows, to speed up the outputs, to speed up the services to the public. There still is a great deal of complaint despite the strides that Dr. Barnett has made, and it is all across the board. It is the regular Belizean who feels that it is taking too long for him or her to get his or her farm land or house lot. It is from the commercial sector, from the banks, from the real estate sector. So there is no doubt that despite what I continue to say were Dr. Barnett's Herculean efforts, there is still a lot more to be done and I really feel that Hugo Patt will be able to get behind this thing and provide the sort of impetus that will lead to continuing improvement."

There has also been word that Dr. Barnett did not make many friends within the Cabinet, and other senior Ministers may have asked for her to be moved...

Reporter
"PM, the PUP suggested that it may have been another completely different separate reason why she was moved. And there's also a suggestion that some of the senior members within government asked for Dr. Barnett to be moved. Is there any truth to that?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"No, and I heard them suggest that the move is to empower Hugo Patt so that he can make a bid for the leadership of the party. Hugo have absolutely no interest in that, I've spoken to him he will not be putting in is name. So that's one thing that we can entirely dismiss. I don't know that colleagues, nobody came to me and asked me for Dr. Barnett's removal. That there would have been complaints that the pace in the Department was still not what people would like it to be, no doubt because that is also the perception, experience of the party. So everybody acknowledges that Dr. Barnett made this tremendous effort, but that place is absolutely difficult, not to say impossible to really move along in the way we would like, and in the way the society deserves. It is in those circumstances, I repeat, that Dr. Barnett felt that perhaps it was time for somebody else to give it a try because it does sap the energy of any minister who goes to the Lands Department."