Day: March 26, 2024

Barrow criticized the P.U.P. for what he thinks is making a mockery of the process and to push their political agenda using the Governor-General’s office in the person of the Acting Governor-General.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“His concern was that there were three instruments to be signed and one instrument was to come after the temporary Senator Instruments were the instruments that were priority because the permanent Senator, due to the vacation of one of the senatorships that comes after we already have in train. There’s a budget debate. This is not a no Senate meeting is regular, but this is an extraordinary Senate meeting to debate the budget to debate all the people’s monies will be spent. And so that takes time for preparation that – so we made – I got last-minute notices that my senators wouldn’t be available, the permanent ones, and so we made the Letter of Appointment to the G-G’s office immediately on Friday. And again, it’s, if the G-G’s office had said at the time: “It’s Friday, it’s too late, we can’t do it, we need 48 hours,”  – cause that’s another thing they’re coming up with, this 48-hour rule, does not exist on the books. Does not exist. This is a protocol, a new policy that they have ad hoc, implemented. But what I’m saying is the purpose of the Office of the G-G is to facilitate these urgent requests. The PUP on one end tries to make a mockery of democracy when they do things like this. They always try to point out to who comes to host meetings and how many members of the opposition are there. When we have Opposition members eager and anxious to go to the Senate and having followed the procedures, everything should be done to facilitate our constitutional right. There are no favors being done here. There is no discretion in the office of the G-G. And if you look at this year’s budget, the governor general’s budget has increased, so they’re not short of staff. It is appalling the levels of which the People’s United Party would reduce themselves to in trying to undermine the Opposition, as well as democracy and we condemn it vehemently and we will take legal action to prevent these types of abuse.”

Barrow said that when he called the Governor-General’s office on Friday evening to follow-up on his communication over the substitution of Senators Michael Peyrefitte and Beverly Williams, the employee at the office acknowledged receipt of his notification but did not indicate at that point that there was an issue. The Governor-General, Froyla Tzalam, is not in office, and Stewart Leslie is acting in that position. Barrow said Leslie’s decision forced his only other senator to walk out of the proceedings.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“My senators walked out, but Antonio Herrera, who was going to act as Lead Senator today in place of Michael Peyrefitte, walked out in protest. I spoke to the President of the Senate, who was gracious to call me very early this morning, but obviously all she could do is follow up with the GG to see if there are any instruments she cannot dictate to the GG how to proceed. And those are some of the things that we do need to establish. And she did say she would like to sit with myself, the Leader of Government Business and the Leader of Opposition Business and other stakeholders so that we could come up with procedures. If there was a problem at three and there were clarifications that needed to be made, you just don’t say, Oh, I’m not doing this. You call the G-G. You call me if I need to send different instruments. There have been times where I may have  quoted, they had an issue with the part of the Constitution. I quoted the GG’s office has been,  gracious enough to say please correct. the section that you’ve quoted so that we can proceed. So I’m not laying this at the foot of the actual GG. I’m talking about the Cab Sec, the political hack Stuart Leslie. What I’m saying is that three o’clock he should have contacted the AG. How do we proceed? We need to get this done.”

Senator for Government Business Eamon Courtenay opened today’s budget debate inside the National Assembly Building in Belmopan. Senator Courtenay expounded on a point made by Prime Minister John Briceño last week. The government is spending approximately seventy-three cents of every dollar to keep its operations running, including the payment of salary and pensions of public officers. With twenty-seven cents remaining for capital investments, Senator Courtenay noted the importance of access to concessionary financing.

Eamon Courtenay, Lead Senator, Government Business

“As the prime minister explained and this is important madam president, thirty percent of every dollar will go to wages for public officers. Seven cents of every dollar will go to pensions for public officers. Eighteen cents of every dollar for  operational costs for the government such as utilities and transportation and seven cents for interest in loans. That leaves twenty-seven cents for capital and expenditure to build a better belize. Therefore seventy-three cents of every dollar keeps the government running and only twenty-seven cents available to build belize. It is in that context that we have to make efforts in accessing concessional financing in order to make the ambitious plans of plan belize possible.”

Business Senator, Kevin Herrera says that the government’s projected expenditure of one point six billion dollars for 2024 is manageable, with revenues projected at one point four billion dollars. He argued however that the government is foregoing too much money in land taxes on an annual basis. Senator Herrera says that up to one hundred million dollars in land taxes can be collected annually, as opposed to the projected seven million dollars.

Kevin Herrera, Business Senator

“And these are all very manageable. These are not bad numbers at all because they are really within the range that are manageable. So we came pretty close to where expenses almost equal to revenue and I think if we continue to work on the revenue side of the budget, if we continue to try to contain expenses I think we can look at an overall surplus at some point. On our revenue side I am of the view that the government forgoes millions of dollars in taxes each year.  This is very important to bring fairness into the system. For those whom play by the rules and I am talking about the private sector, they are disadvantaged in a competitive environment when we have to compete with those who unfairly don’t pay their fair share and as a result are either able to sell at a lower price or have a bigger margin, or in some cases both. One example raised on a couple occasions, land tax. We have budgeted seven point one five two million in this coming fiscal year. This is generally the amount we budget to collect every year. You will look at it and say this is consistent. It seems reasonable. The fact is we could collect a lot more from this year. And, based on those who I have talked to who work this year, the amount we collect can well be over a hundred million each year.”

Church Senator Bishop Alvin Bengunche focused his contributions on poverty alleviation. Senator Benguche contended that poverty breeds crime and as such the government must place emphasis on providing more opportunities for the marginalized. He noted that improving the living conditions of the most vulnerable is a priority.

Alvin Benguche, Church Senator

“For poverty alleviation, if we share and deal with these specific areas it will help to build children, educate children, to focus on women who must be employed and given employment opportunities, especially in the rural areas. Mr. President, poverty breeds crime such as we are seeing, perhaps not so much so in Belize, but one of our neighboring countries and we have to take note of that, that we must never as a country reach that proportion of crime. So we must seek to build on our people and move them out of poverty. I look at the ministry of infrastructure development and housing and continue on the subject of alleviating poverty, this is a vital area that the church is concerned about, the living standard of people is very important for us.”

A very public dispute between U.D.P. Leader Moses Shyne Barrow and Brian “Yellowman” Audinette is intensifying. On Monday, Audinette responded to Barrow’s claims that he stole a refrigerator, television, and microwave from the party’s headquarters. Audinette then filed a counter police report in which he made several allegations against Barrow. Today, the media asked Police Commissioner Chester Williams about both reports. Williams says he doesn’t know of any against Audinette but says the police are investigating the allegations made against Barrow.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“CIB have that complaint. They are following it up to see if there is any credibility to the information. It’s one that we cannot ignore. And I’m going to give the investigators time to be able to do the investigation. I know that they are in the process of interviewing persons who Yellowman claims were around or including persons who may have brought certain things, information to him. And when we are through with that, if we see a need to bring in Shyne, or the leader of the opposition for an interview, then we are going to do so.”