Monday, October 7, 2024

National Forensic Science Service Receives First-of-its-Kind Laboratory Equipment in Belize

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September 7, 2022, the Ministry of Economic Development handed over a Thermo-Scientific TSX Series High-Performance Laboratory Refrigerator for evidence storage and a Handheld Portable Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometer for rapid field identification of liquid and solid chemicals to the National Forensic Science Service (NFSS) through the Ministry of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries.
The equipment has a total value of BZ$146,000 and was purchased from EPROLAB, which will also be providing technical training to the forensic science practitioners at the NFSS on its proper usage and basic maintenance.
The procurement of these items is a direct contribution from the BZ$60-million-project titled Belize Integral Security Programme (BISP), which is funded by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and geared towards strengthening citizen security through investments in infrastructure and equipment of the public institutions that are responsible for national security.
Other initiatives under the programme earmarked for the NFSS include a pre-investment study on the needs and design of a new forensic laboratory and the advanced instrumentation to make it operational; a functional forensic morgue to support medicolegal death investigations; two refrigerated mortuary transport vehicles (coroner’s vans), and other necessary laboratory/medical equipment. This then brings projects allocated for the National Forensic Science Service to a total of BZ$7,106,000 through the BISP.
Present for the handing over of equipment were Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries; Dr. Osmond Martinez, Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Economic Development; Mr. Gian Cho, Executive Director for the NFSS; and Mr. Elvis Requena, Project Coordinator for the Belize Integral Security Programme.

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