A Model of HIS Governance

It would be unfair to cast blame at Prime Minister Dean Barrow for proclaiming back in 2006 that the new UDP Belize City Council led by Mayor Zenaida Moya would serve as a ‘model of good governance’ for the rest of the country. Although he claims all manner of divine skills and abilities, extrasensory prescience has never been one of them. But while the Prime Minister will certainly never blame himself for the chaos which has been wrought in Belize City by his handpicked municipal crew, it seems just that he should feel some shame for what has come to pass and bear some responsibility for the mess.

The leader of the nation has remained mute on the crisis surrounding the Belize City Council, as he has on so many issues today. Lately his grinning visage is more apparent on the pages of foreign newspapers and magazines as he does the cocktail circuit abroad than on any local newscast dealing with the many issues affecting the nation and the people he swore an oath to serve. If the Prime Minister would deign to stay ‘local’ for a week or two, perhaps he could then be persuaded to join a current discussion which has never in our political history been broached but is today most pertinent – would residents of Belize City be better off without a municipal body ‘at the helm,’ so to speak.

It is completely accurate to state that never before have residents of Belize City been subjected to municipal administration the likes of which they have since 2006 when the UDP took municipal office. In fact, the term ‘administration’ has to be used loosely because City Hall has become more of a ‘free-for-a-few’ than an organization bearing any resemblance to a managed entity. Under the leadership of Zenaida Moya, every single tenet which should guide a committed, honest and successful municipal government has gone through the door.

Transparency, financial accountability and good governance took wings and fled the scene early in the term of the new UDP Council, and have not been seen since. Evidence was presented which showed a criminal chain of sweetheart deals concocted between the Mayor and her brother – hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work, with no work to show for it. Evidence was presented which proved that the Mayor, completely without authorization, had decided to pay herself an additional $3,000 per month. The Ministry of Local Government got involved and publicly condemned the action as misappropriation of public funds. There have been official audits conducted which revealed the ‘disappearance’ of hundreds of thousands more and raised more than a hundred queries which remain unanswered today. And of course, there has been the famous term coined by the Mayor – under-depositing – which confounds accountants and economists to this day. The money gone missing through ‘under-depositing’ has never been accounted for, though speculation is rife that the transactions were balanced out through ‘over-depositing’ in someone’s private account.

In the area of internal management, the UDP CitCo has also been deplorable. Internal and very public warfare have been the orders of the day. No less than six senior managers have resigned, a few of them with choice condemnations of the Mayor, and the Councilors charged with administering the affairs of the city are far too busy choosing sides in a battle which never seems to go anywhere. While this happens, the Council has floundered into insolvency and has been unable to provide even the most basic services as outlined in its mandate. Garbage remains uncollected, streets have become dilapidated due to complete and total neglect, parks and playgrounds have sunk into disrepair, drains are cluttered with filth from lack of maintenance and the city has become a cesspool. The only Councilor who still shows his face with regularity is the far less than able, adroit or intellectual Phillip Willoughby, who is trying to maneuver photo opportunities into political credibility with no success. All other Councilors have retreated into the cushiness of private jobs issued through political connections and the business of residents has been ignored. The only thing these Councilors can be accused of carrying out with some expedience is the cashing of their monthly stipends, close to $4000 each.

No, Mr. Barrow cannot be blamed for lacking the extrasensory perception to predict his Council’s failings. But he MUST be blamed for his unflinching, unwavering determination to ignore the continued betrayal of Belize City residents by a Council which he put in place. The Prime Minister has ignored every audit which has revealed monies missing at the Council. He has ignored the evidence of the Mayor’s misappropriation and mismanagement which have been piled at his feet. He has ignored the garbage crisis and the crisis of wrecked streets; the plight of the BML workers and the shocking revelations of those in the belly of the beast. He has turned a blind eye to the wreckage at City Hall and the people of the city have paid a heavy price for it.

As eloquent as he is, perhaps Mr. Barrow misspoke back in 2006 when he called the new UDP Belize City Council a model of good governance. Perhaps he meant to say that the UDP City Council would be a model of HIS governance. That would surely have been a far more accurate turn of phrase for the master of words.

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