And of course the George Price Highway Rehabilitation Project was among the discussion topics. That's the project with the $14 million additional financing from the Inter-American Development Bank including construction of a new Roaring Creek Bridge. As admitted by Minister of Works Rene Montero in the House on Friday, monies are needed at least in part for acquisition of lands in the area to widen the road. But Business Senator Mark Lizarraga harshly criticized the complete handling of the project by the Government, including paying extra monies for a re-design of the bridge and shading the true purpose of the loan. Leader of Government Business Godwin Hulse responded that the protocols put in place for the management of the project are intact - it's just the estimates that were wrong.
Mark Lizarraga, Senator - Business Community
"I came in possession of a document from one of the supervising companies which is a firm IMC out of England and when they identified that the 2 million plans that we paid for were not good, they were dangerous and a host of other things. They identify savings that we were going to have saving by what they called value engineering. So were certainly expecting to see the cost go down, not go up. Wouldn't that have been nice? Because the original bridge was on unsafe and over design in some aspects. A local firm was tasked with the redesigned and it appeared, certainly from the report that I saw that there were going to be substantial savings. So that again was a shock for me to see that now rather than a savings, the cost has gone up for those things that were mentioned in the motion which we brought up inside and certainly this thing about land acquisition just come out of left field, because it certainly in none of the documents that we saw."
Godwin Hulse, UDP Senator
"The estimates were wrong."
Reporter
"That's what the report says."
Godwin Hulse, UDP Senator, Leader of Gov't Business
"That also is not correct. Estimates were wrong because there were lots of things that were not taken into consideration and there was a lot of work done after the design, after the estimates. They didn't take into consideration a lot of things that should happen to get it the way it should be. I want to get to the other point. It is not fair to suggest that as Senator Thompson said that this is some hustle. Let us not take on to ourselves the responsibility to be the engineers. There are people in the ministry. They are competent people. They are people with character and dignity and you cannot go through and be disparaging them and laughing at them. That's not right. I could take all the criticism, but those people in the Ministry of Works and I have a lot of engagement with them. Yes, there are some complaints. There are people in every ministry, heads of department that is under all kinds of pressure and its not everybody that is that meticulous."
The motion went to a division on the second reading which went along party lines, seven to six in favour with Churches Senator Ashley Rocke casting the tying vote, ahead of a third reading later in the session. But there was much discussion about the new revelations made by Senator Lizarraga this morning, including that costs on the road that will now top up to 81 million dollars could have been reduced. Government Senator Aldo Salazar contended that it didn't really matter, while Anthony Mahler, sitting in for Eamon Courtenay, said he could not see how the I.D.B. could entrust their monies to a crew who apparently cannot manage well.
Aldo Salazar, UDP Senator
"As far as I know we are dealing with an international lending organization, the IDB. They have certain approved contractor to do certain things. They go by international standards. A lot of times people in Belize cannot qualify to do certain things. Say a bridge design, I'm guessing. In order for you to qualify you have has to design 20 bridges before, you have had to done this X, Y and Z. There is significant standards before you can qualify, before you can even pre-qualify to submit a design for these sorts of things when you are dealing with an international lending organization. That design as far as I understand was sent out, a considerable cost, yes, but it was sent to a qualified bridge designer. That has nothing to do with the government of Belize. The selection of that designer wasn't done by the government of Belize. So if there was a mistake with the design, that's not the government's fault."
Anthony Mahler, PUP Senator
"What I am hearing from the other side is that we in Belize supposed to take what we get from the IDB? So it's like you go in Footlocker and you know your foot is size 11 and you want to buy a tennis or a shoes and they are telling you to wear a size 8. The bridge drop short and then they says that okay. No man, that is craziness. Guess who is paying for these works, it's the Belizean people. Not IDB and I could tell you from experience that we've in Belize have put IDB in check before. Not because they say they are right, they are right. No man. This is nonsense."
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