On August 24, 2026, a deep public rift has opened between Belize’s government led by Prime Minister John Briceño and the nation’s Public Service Union (PSU) over the controversial Revenue Authority Bill, with both sides offering contradictory accounts of how much stakeholder consultation was held before the legislation advanced to the Senate.
Prime Minister Briceño has publicly maintained that the PSU was given extensive opportunities to provide input and help shape the structure of the bill throughout its drafting process. But PSU President Dean Flowers is pushing back hard against those claims, saying that any substantive dialogue between the union and government collapsed after a deeply unsatisfactory meeting held on May 19. According to Flowers, the government failed to follow through on a key commitment to establish a cross-stakeholder steering committee that would oversee ongoing consultations on the legislation.
In a public statement setting out the union’s version of events, Flowers detailed the timeline of negotiations: the PSU submitted a comprehensive position paper outlining its vision for the new Superintendence of the Revenue Authority (SARA), including what the body’s mandate and structure should entail. The government called the union to a consultation meeting in May, but Flowers says that no government official at the gathering was able to answer basic questions about the proposed legislation. Crucially, Flowers notes that the full draft text of the bill was never shared with union representatives before the meeting, with officials only presenting a general PowerPoint overview of the proposal.
Flowers added that while an initial draft terms of reference for the promised project steering committee was presented at that May meeting, the committee has never convened for a single working session. Neither side has ever reached a formal agreement on the committee’s operating terms of reference, he confirmed. Calling the government’s rush to advance the bill premature, Flowers went so far as to accuse ruling party officials of acting like dictators in pushing the legislation forward without addressing stakeholder concerns.
Despite the union’s strenuous objections, the Revenue Authority Bill has already cleared a critical legislative milestone: following a tense debate, members of the Belizean National Assembly approved the bill, moving it to the Senate for the next round of review and approval. During the National Assembly debate, Opposition Leader Tracy Panton raised major red flags over the bill’s ambiguous language around the role of the new revenue authority’s advisory board. Section 55 of the legislation states the board will be responsible for providing policy advice and recommendations, but explicitly bars it from exercising any executive, operational, or supervisory decision-making authority over the revenue authority, its CEO, or other senior leaders. Panton said this vague separation of powers creates unacceptable uncertainty around the body’s governance.
Prime Minister Briceño defended the advisory board structure during the debate, arguing that the design is intentional to remove political influence from tax administration. Briceño explained that by restricting the board to an advisory role, the government aims to prevent political appointees from pressuring revenue officials to target or exempt individuals and businesses for political reasons. He noted that taxation is an inherently sensitive issue for the public, and many Belizeans already hold anxiety around the tax system even when they are fully compliant with the law. The prime minister emphasized that the structure is meant to reassure the Belizean public and the broader business community that the new authority will operate free of political interference as much as possible.
Now, as the bill heads to the Senate, the PSU is launching a lobbying campaign to convince independent senators and opposition members to block the legislation’s passage. If the bill ultimately receives Senate approval and becomes law, the union has pledged to mobilize its thousands of member public workers to push for changes to the legislation. In an official release published on August 24, the PSU called on the government to revisit the legislation, address the union’s outstanding concerns, and ensure that the final version of the bill creates a revenue authority that meets core standards of accountability, transparency, professional governance, and robust checks and balances. This story remains ongoing, and further updates will be provided as new developments emerge.