PSU Team to Assist GOB Crack Down on Price Gougers

In today’s Cabinet brief, Government announced that it is taking active measures to crack down on price gougers. The offer from the Joint Unions to assemble a team that will actively assist with monitoring processes in stores to detect instances of price gouging has been accepted by GOB. The Ministry of Agriculture has promised to implement a Supplies Control Act as well as a ticketing system. With that, it appears that this issue will soon be addressed to the fullest extent with the introduction of an amendment bill at the next regular Sitting of the House. President of the PSU, Dean Flowers, says they are looking to meet with the ministry to formulate a strategy that will enable public officers to be able to ticket and report such businesses found to be price gouging.

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union: “Today we were informed that we will be contacted by the Ministry of Agriculture and so we look forward to that meeting. We will be holding a meeting with them where we will chart or look a mechanism that could work whereby public officers will be empowered to be able to report and ticket these businesses that are unconscionably raising and gouging the consuming Belizean public and we invite the Belizean public also to cooperate with us and to report these businesses because effectively I understand from the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance that I believe the legislation that governs the ticketing of price gouging businesses should be enacted by parliament I believe by April I understand that should be forthcoming.”