JUNT Demands Full Disclosure of Country’s Debt Profile  

The Joint Union Negotiating Team has also requested a detailed report of the country’s debt profile from the Government of Belize. Dean Flowers, the President of the Public Service Union, says that this should be on the minds of every Belizean. He added that G.O.B. did not provide the report on Wednesday but has committed to do so in a timely manner.

 

Dean Flowers, President, P.S.U.

“As it relates to the profile of the country, I think that is a concern and a matter of high importance that should be on every single Belizean mind. As we all know, we would have restructured our debt, most of our debts in 2021, we would have received three years moratorium on most, if not all of our debts. So several of our debts now become due and payable as we speak. Included in that are the interest payments for the super bond, which matures in 2020. And so we felt that given that there will be no added demand on government finances to meet our national and international debts, that it’s important that we get an understanding of where we are with that and the obligations that will be tied to that. Because if it is that we’re unable to meet those debt payments, then we will be back at square one when the government will be looking at where can it cut expenses. And as we all know, it has always been cutting the public purse in terms of public officers salaries. And so we now have that at the forefront of our agenda in terms of paying attention to that, because any slip up in that can end up costing us money again in the long run. We did not receive that today, but we did receive a very detailed presentation on where we are as a country in terms of our debt and commitment was made by the representative from the Ministry of Finance to provide comprehensive debt profile to us. And so once that is provided, I would have no problem sharing that or speaking on that with the Belizean people.”