Belizeans ask for resignation of newly appointed CEO’s
On Tuesday, November 17, there were announcements made of new CEO’s in various ministries. Those that caught our attention were the naming of Narda Garcia as the CEO in the Ministry of Finance under Johnny Briceño, Amalia Mai as the CEO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Eamon Courtenay, Servulo Baeza as CEO in the Ministry of Agriculture and Marco Tulio Mendez as the CEO in the Ministry of Health.
As we go to press, a petition has already begun to circulate on various social media platforms asking that at least one of these appointments be reconsidered. The appointment of Narda Garcia and that of Amalia Mai have been the ones that have attracted the greatest attention. For younger readers who do not know of the history of these two, we can simply ask them to Google their names and their infamy will pop right up. Garcia had to resign from the Social Security Board after scandal after scandal broke where the poor people’s contributions to the system was being used to finance private sector initiatives that bore no fruits but instead indebted the SSB for millions upon millions of dollars. It all came to a head when a commission of inquiry had to take place, cataloguing the various wrongdoings at the board. The fleecing of the SSB was one of the primary reasons the PUP was booted out of office in 2008.
Another CEO appointment that has raised eyebrows is that of Amalia Mai. She was at the Ministry of Foreign affairs and signed on behalf of the government of Belize for 40 million dollars granted to the people of Belize by the Venezuelan Government. The sum total of the grant was not known until after the general elections of 2008 when the Venezuelans sought an accounting for the use of the money. It was then that it was learnt that the then PUP government had declared to the people that they received 20 million dollars when in fact it was twice that amount. The other half was used to pay the now infamous private Universal Health Service Debt.
And while we can dedicate much more to these two CEO’s, we must also remember Marco Tulio Mendez who was involved in some serious allegations of sexual misconduct against some young girls who were under his care. Then we have Servulo Baeza, who once was the Minister of Health and who had a lot to be desired in the running of that ministry. And while he may have had many sins in that ministry, his worst one came when he was involved in allegations being made by a businessman, who claimed that he along with Ainsley Leslie had swindled him out of a piece of island. At the time, the businessman was led to believe that he was purchasing a particular piece of island in the south. He developed the island and when he was done he was confronted with the harsh reality that he had developed the wrong piece of property. He lost everything as a result.
These are but a few of the myriad wrongdoings of the previous administration, to now bring these very same players back into the highest decision- making positions in government leaves a lot to be desired from the now, only week-old PUP administration.
