SAN PEDRO DAILY, February 29 , 2008 ,Belize,News,Features,Newspapers,Information,Resource,Caribbean,Ambergris Caye

Prime Minister Barrow meets with Financial Intelligence Unit

Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Geraldine Davis Young has categorically stated that former Prime Minister Said Musa had at no time submitted to the FIU the report of the Senate Special Select Committee on its investigation into the operations of the Social Security Board under his administration, nor did the former Prime Minister at anytime ask the FIU to take any action on any matter arising from that investigation or report. This was confirmed by the FIU Director in a meeting with Prime Minister Hon. Dean Barrow in his Belmopan Office today, February 28, 2008.
On at least two occasions in the National Assembly, when questioned by the then Leader of the Opposition Hon. Dean Barrow, former Prime Minister Musa stated that he had submitted the said report to both the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the FIU for them to take appropriate action. One such occasion was the House Meeting of August 25, 2006. Below is a transcript of the specific question by Hon. Dean Barrow with respect to the FIU and the Senate Special Select Committee’s Report, followed by Hon. Said Musa’s response.
Hon. Dean Barrow: “Will the Prime Minister say whether he has considered (and if not, why not) asking the Financial Intelligence Unit to make inquiries of counterparts in the U.S. and elsewhere in an effort to trace loan monies that the Senate Special Select Committee has identified as having been (possibly) fraudulently obtained?”
Hon. Said Musa: “Madam Speaker, a copy of the Report of the Senate Special Select Committee has been provided to the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit with the view to tracing the loan monies that the Committee alleged as having been wrongfully obtained. The Director of the FIU will no doubt pursue the matter.”
The categorical statement today by the FIU Director to Prime Minister Barrow squarely contradicts that claim made by former Prime Minister Said Musa who has once again been found to have lied to the National Assembly and, indeed, the nation.
Prime Minister Barrow, for his part, has indicated that his government is now making provisions for a copy of that report to be submitted to the FIU for action to be taken.
With respect to the DFC Commission of Inquiry, Prime Minister Barrow says his government has asked the FIU to make further inquiries into, and take appropriate action on whatever might have arisen out of that inquiry, utilizing whatever material is available as a result of the inquiry.
The Prime Minister says the FIU will also be pursing investigations with respect to the Moises Cal case involving the illegal transportation by suitcase of over a Million Dollars in cash to Panama.
Prime Minister Barrow says the FIU Director has assured him that also very much alive with her unit is the case involving the theft from BTL of BZ $6 Million, allegedly given to money-changer Dion Zabaneh by CEO Gaspar Aguilar to convert into US Dollars. The FIU, the Prime Minister says, will continue to pursue that matter to determine whether any banking laws or the Money Laundering ACT was violated.
Finally, on the matter of the missing US $10Million from Venezuela, the Prime Minister says that in addition to a letter sent to Venezuelan authorities by Belize’s Financial Secretary, the FIU has written to its counterpart in Venezuela to assist in investigating the matter.
Prime Minister Barrow says his government will continue to pursue justice on behalf of the Belizean people and will leave no stones unturned to bring to account those who have robbed the people of this Country. Read More

Henry Gordon Will Represent Churches on Senate

They know who sits on the right and the left hand side of the father, but who sits in the Senate. Well that’s a worldly matter that the Council of Churches seems to have been in no hurry to address. Since February of last year, the Council of Churches has not had a senator after Moises Chan retired. But a new term begins on March 14th.,and the Council of Churches has selected Henry Gordon as its representative. Gordon is a former Cabinet Secretary of the Esquivel administration of 1993 to 1998. Read More

Flour in Scarce Supply

There’s a worldwide wheat shortage – and now the effects of that could be coming home to your breadbasket. Phillip Millikin of ADM Belize Mills today confirmed that his company will be able to keep bakers supplied, if only just barely. That’s because ADM got wheat trucked in from Guatemala today. But that’s plan b; ADM’s wheat is generally shipped in by barge.
But the supply has been slowed because their barge has been queued up for the past ten days on the Mississippi River waiting for its regular supply of wheat. Because of wheat shortages in the u.s., that likely won’t be coming through until March first, so supply will continue to be scarce. But with regular trucks from Guatemala, there should be flour available mostly for wholesale. Millikin points out that the real problem is that the locally produced flour continues to be smuggled out of Belize into Guatemala and Mexico – because the controlled price is so much cheaper than flour in those countries. Read More

Researcher says reef can
recover from adversity

There is no denying the importance of coral reefs: they act as a safe harbour for fish, protect the coast, help to control the amount of carbon dioxide in the water, and they attract foreign tourists and their hard currency revenues. But reefs are also susceptible to many negative impacts, one of them being that global phenomenon known as climate change. This afternoon, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute held a seminar for stakeholders in Belize’s marine environment to discuss the resilience of our reef in the face of climate change. Facilitating the event was Dr. Peter Mumby who has been conducting research on the reef for twenty years. According to Mumby, the warming of the oceans does not necessarily mean the death of the reef.
Peter Mumby, Marine Researcher
“As the oceans get warmer corals will be bleaching, they get sort of sunburnt, if you like, very, very frequently and this can be very problematic for reefs. We’ve seen this in Belize in the past and we need to do what we can—the people of Belize need to do what they can—to try and give reefs the best chance of bouncing back from warm temperatures in the future.
“We do know from different parts of the world that areas that have been managed, where people have tried to remove the other kinds of stress on the reef, those reefs can recover from climate change, they can recover and they will tend to be healthier. Really the emphasis is, there’s a lot of things we can’t do anything about. There are some things we can do something about; let’s make sure we do that where we can.
It’s really more important than ever that the management agencies here continue the work that they are doing to protect key species in Belize, in particular things like parrot fish. Many people don’t realise that parrot fish for example, are actually very important fish for the reef. They are brightly coloured fish, they are beautiful, they don’t taste so good and they play a very important role in trying to keep the reef healthy. All they do is cruise around munching seaweed each day, keeping the weeds under control. So if you have plenty of parrot fish it just helps the corals to grow without being overrun with weeds.”
Janet Gibson, Wildlife Conservation Society
“I am hoping that many people who attend will go away with a greater understand of the issue that through your presentation for instance on television that would be a greater understanding. And I hope that—this presentation alone won’t be sufficient by any means but whatever way we can contribute to better awareness of the issue, I think that helps.”
The Wildlife Conservation Society and C.Z.M.A.I. team up to hold seminars regularly throughout the year. Read More

Ford, Jaguar make
environmental grants

Four local organisations have received grants from automobile manufacturers for environmental and cultural conservation projects. According to a release issued today, the winners of the Ford Motor Company Conservation and Environmental Grant Awards Program are the West Landivar Citizens Action Committee, which will receive eleven thousand dollars for their project: Dolphin Park, Green Spaces in Urban Places. In the culture category, teachers and students from Mount Carmel High School will put their four thousand dollars towards Marimba Music Conservation. The projects were selected by a panel of judges including Aldo Cansino, Oscar Alonzo and Rene Villanueva. This is the fifth year Ford has funded such projects in Belize. That’s the same amount of time that Jaguar North America has been supporting non-profit groups in Belize to preserve that endangered species and its habitat. This year’s award recipients are the Belize Zoo which will be partnering with the Scout Association in a fifteen thousand dollar project to “promote Jaguar Conservation and Awareness”. Meanwhile, the Itzamna Society will use their fifteen thousand dollars to conduct a monitoring census for the jaguar population in the Eligio Panti National Park. In its release, the luxury carmaker says the idea is to bolster Belizean efforts to preserve, protect and propagate the Jaguar in the wild and in captivity through research, education and management. Read More

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