1 week ago
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Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security, Retired Major Francis Usher, says claims of a dire food shortage at the Belize Coast Guard is a serious misrepresentation of what is happening on the ground. A report on social media alleges that Coast Guard personnel were not provided with food today and were told to purchase their own lunch. It also claims that ration stores are empty and that no provisions have been delivered for September and October. Responding to those allegations, Usher acknowledged that there has been a delay in provisions. He maintains, however, that the situation is not dire and that the report gives a misleading account of the circumstances.
Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of National Defence and Border Security: “I don’t think that many of these platforms take the opportunity to verify such information. And I think that we live, unfortunately, in a day and age where the amount of clicks you can get is all that certain social media news outlets as they’re called care about. And so I think that’s more the issue. I think that we need to verify information better. The storage available at the Coast Guard base when it comes to rations, when it comes to food items is very limited. So we have to have routine deliveries of food items whether it be chicken and the sort, all of the different food items. These last set of deliveries, there were administrative delays but we’ve already worked through them and the deliveries are going to be forthcoming and there will be no effect cause on the operational tempo of the Belize Coast Guard. In terms of where it’s coming from, I think it’s just mischief. I think it’s political mischief really and I think that there are just some disgruntled people that are looking for any reason to try to create any doubt or drama. But a couple things I would say about that situation. The first is that we have recognized the need for greater storage in terms of food items at the Coast Guard base. So it’s something that we are going to address so that small administrative delays don’t cause a great issue where you are able to self-sustain for longer than they’re able to right now. But yeah, these are things that we are aware of and that we are addressing but they take time to address. So in the interim we have to ensure that we plan properly. Like I said there were some administrative delays in this particular delivery but we’re going to fix them.”
Usher says the delay in provisions will be addressed and the matter remedied in short order.
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