Page 91 - Gilbert & Me_Neat

This also means that the public sector, as a whole, is badly administered, and provides a
substandard level of service to the public at large. It is also riddled with corruption – just take
the Immigration and Nationality Department for instance; the Passports for Purchase scandal
resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of Belizean Passports being acquired by unqualified
applicants, who were able to slip a couple of thousand dollars to the ‘right person’ within the
department, and nobody questioned these transactions because there was money being made –
and lots of it by lots of people, including the minister at the time, clerical staff, immigration
officers and others. We still, even today, do not know the extent of the scandal and nobody has
been punished.

Another scandal involved the Lands Department. The idea here is that Belizeans should be
allowed to purchase of piece of land: if you’re Belizean, you qualify for a small parcel of land –
you just have to apply, and the Government will determine which bit of the country you can
own. You don’t really get a choice, unless you purchase land privately through a Real Estate
Agent, which means somebody else is selling land. The land the Government is selling, is land it
has come into ownership of following independence – this is known as Crown Property and the
Government is keen to sell it. But there are conditions. For example, once you have taken
ownership, if you fail to put up a building – any building - on that land within a certain period of
time, you could forfeit that land and it will be offered for sale to somebody else. It’s a bit like a
lottery.

However, in the not-too-distant-past if you crossed the palm of a certain minister with a certain
amount of cash, you could purchase almost any land you wanted, even if it was already in private
ownership. You could also purchase land at one valuation, and then get it re-valued and sell it
for a much higher value, without any questions being asked.

Such was the case with some land bought by a relative of the then minister responsible for land.
He purchase some land, already owned privately. That ownership was declared null and void, so
the relative purchased it, got it re-valued and sold it for a huge profit. Meanwhile, the original
owners tried desperately to have their ownership established, to no avail, until they went public
and took the matter to court – which is not something many Belizeans can do as it is extremely
expensive to challenge ministers’ in court.

Only one minister has been found guilty of illegal land transactions, although there are many
who are suspected of having conducted such transactions and been able to get away with it. They
do so because way too many politicians in Belize are, actually, Attorneys themselves, so they
know how to cover up their transgressions and how to make challenging them so difficult as to
discourage citizens taking legal action. My theory is, they qualify as lawyers, and get use to
making serious amounts of money from that trade. Then, since they are often hired to defend
fraudsters and persons conducting questionable activities, quickly realise there’s money to be
made if you can get away with actions a good lawyer can defend. So, they get themselves
elected. Now, they can do almost whatever they want, while still making good money, and if
they get caught, they can turn to one of their political allies (themselves a lawyer) and run rings
around anybody challenging them.

Just a theory.