And while they met in the Cabinet Room in Belmopan - Cabinet met yesterday the House of Culture in Belize City.
When it was done late yesterday evening, we spoke to Prime Minister John Briceno on a number of urgent matters of national interest. At the end of that 23-minute conversation, we asked him about over 20 appointments he has made to government statutory and corporate boards which are raising eyebrows in the public domain.
Several of these appointments are direct family members of sitting ministers who have been placed on the Board of Directors at BTL, the Belize Water Services Limited, the Social Security Board, and NICH. Still, other prominent, PUP family members have been appointed to important government posts within Briceno's administration.
We asked the PM squarely about those appointments, and here are his answers:
Reporter
"The word 'Nepotism' is being thrown out there, sir."
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"I think that the question that we need - that I would rather you ask [is] about the quality of the people that I am appointing. I believe that I have appointed, with consultations with the different ministers, ministries, and everybody else, people who are qualified. Now, if I had just appointed people just because they are family members of a minister or my friend - whatever - and they are not qualified, then I think you have every right to be able to make a case. But, when you're looking at just say 20 out of hundreds of people that we have to appoint, Belize is a small society. We have limited talent. And so, we have to use what we best have. I mean, and in some instances, we can't get the very best, but we put a good team. And that's what we do. We have put good teams, made up of women and men, people in business, people in academia - to make sure that we have these balanced people that are big in business, small in business. So, we have this right balance so that we can be able to go and serve the people as best as we possibly can."
Reporter
"Sir, but, at the end of the day, you are appointing individuals who are family members."
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"And? As I repeated again, why would you not want to name a person who is qualified and could do a good job just because he or she is related to a minister?"
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