Reporter Editorial

After a week of reports which have buffeted the Belize Lands Department because of the recorded swindles which have been coming to light, the Commissioner of Lands this week issued a statement. It says in effect that the function of the Ministry of Lands is only “to vet the recording requirements as the law prescribes and to approve the sale value for the stamp duty proposed.”
This circumscribed view of the duties of the Land Titles Registry exempts it from any responsibility in guaranteeing the integrity of land titles, but this is precisely the purpose of the new Land Certificate.
The Land Titles Registry is the only entity in Belize that can detect and prevent land fraud before it happens. It has been set up to do precisely that for both the public and the private sectors.
The Police cannot do prevention work because they do not have powers of perception to know when a swindle is about to take place.
The law affecting land ownership in Belize is such that a person holding a land certificate of ownership or a conveyance possesses in that document a cast-iron proof of ownership.
The Land  Registry gives it a seal of authority when it approved a title.
Investors and credit institutions such as banks are reassured by the government’s seal of authority and on that basis the land can be sold and used as a commodity of value.
The Government of Belize cannot abrogate its responsibility to make sure that all land transactions, those between private parties and those between government and people are honest and genuine and can stand up to scrutiny.
It is the duty of the government to oversee all land transactions because nobody else is in a position to do so! The emerging disclosures of land fraud on Ambergris Caye and in Stann Creek are distressing, and the washing-of-hands-attitude demonstrated in the recent Government statement is not at all reassuring.
Land security is essential to the stability and good order of Belize. Without it the reputation of this administration could go “poof” in a plume of smoke.
It is a matter of the greatest urgency for the Minister of Lands to weed out the crooked elements in the Lands Ministry which allow fraud and swindles to take place. This kind of crime strikes at the very root of economic stability. It used to occur regularly under the PUP regime. Now it has come back to contaminate the UDP. The solution may not be as difficult as it may seem.
There are markers which show up when a land transaction appears to be fraudulent, and the experts in the Lands Registry should be able to see these. At such times a telephone call to the registered landowner(s) or a letter before final approval of transfer could prove invaluable in snuffing out this abominable practice.
The Lands Department release this week reports that a thorough investigation has been conducted, and it showed no failure on the part of the Land Titles Registry. This is not surprising when the Ministry of Lands defines its role within such narrow confines.
If a wider investigation were undertaken it would show that there is a pattern to the land swindles - a clever forger, an accommodating Justice of the Peace to facilitate the transaction, and people at the Land Registry willing to turn a blind eye.
Reporter

---