Rather than seeing the Mira Millions and Ministry of Defense procurement controversy as a political liability, Cabinet Minister Kareem Musa says it could become a turning point for government reform. Musa argues that the scandal has exposed weaknesses in Belize’s procurement system that can now be addressed through stronger safeguards and oversight. With the next general election still years away, he believes the Briceño administration has enough time to restore public confidence and demonstrate accountability. Musa is also calling for automatic alerts to flag unusual spending activity, particularly when large sums are dispersed through hundreds of smaller invoices in a single day. Despite the growing scrutiny, he maintains that Belizeans continue to place significant trust in the People’s United Party.
Kareem Musa
Kareem Musa, Cabinet Minister
“What I would say to that is that we are one year into our second term in office. We are four years out from the next general elections. The PUP government is in a good position to make it right by the Belizean people. We have an opportunity to fix procurement which has bedeviled us for decades, not just this PUP administration. Past UDP and PUP administration. We have an opportunity to make it right for the current procurement system and moving forward. What does that entail? As the Prime Minister said we are going to create an actual procurement unit, but in the meantime, we also have to put in place alerts for these under ten thousand payments that are coming out, because, there is no way the ministry of finance should not be alerted when a particular ministry is making so many payments in one particular day. So there has to be alerts put in place. And as the prime minister said, anything under fifty thousand we have to publish every single contract and every bid that was put in for that contract. And that might not be something that the people who are bidding are happy about, but at the end of the day, transparency and satisfying the Belizean public that they are getting the best value for money is what is important. I think moving forward we have an opportunity to fix that an I personally think that while it may seem like a strained relationship, I think people have more trust and confidence in the PUP administration to get things right. So I think that is what we are going to do.”
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