Thread: Budget debate concludes in belmopan

The debate of the 2008/2009 budget concluded today in Belmopan. The debate continued this morning with Attorney General Wilfred Elrington who concluded his presentation which began yesterday. Next to rise to speak was former Prime Minister Said Musa. He began his presentation by saying the positive works of the previous administration should be acknowledged. He went on to list work done in agriculture, education, culture, infrastructure and health.

Said Musa, Representative from FortGeorge

“These funds were secured because of the very good relations that our PUP Government had with Venezuela and with its head of State, President Hugo Chavez. Not one cent of tax payers money was used to bail out the Universal Hospital, not one cent of the generous gift from Venezuela, Mr. Speaker, they said they want to hear, not one cent of the generous gift from Venezuela benefited me personally or indeed any official in the People’s United Party. Not one, none of us benefited personally. I can stand here in this house and before my God and say that truthfully. But you see this matter Mr. Speaker this matter has been the subject of much political controversy and now legal dispute.”

Musa said the UDP found a government back on track.

Said Musa, Representative from FortGeorge

“Today however more than six months later the economy is coming to a screeching halt unless we do something about it quickly. Belize is now facing the economic phenomena of an economic slowdown, also called recession compounded by an out of controlled high cost of living, inflation and we know what that means Mr. Speaker recession inflation that is stagflation that is steering us in the face. What is happening here Mr. Speaker, it’s a karaoke performance that we are seeing. The same song only now the karaoke singer is somewhat more glitzy. He has a 24 piece orchestra with him, but he is fast finding out that each member of that orchestra is beginning to play his own different tune and soon the harmony will lead to a cacophony.”

Musa went on to speak of the money received from Venezuela which has become a source of controversy.

Said Musa, Representative from FortGeorge

“The point is Mr. Speaker they should not insult the intelligence of the Belizean people by pretending that nothing was done. A lot was accomplished, but Belize is a growing nation and much more remains to be done, especially in the areas of social ills in or society; teen pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, youth unemployment, the lack of entrepreneurial skills, the pervasive drug trade, growing crime and violence and the sky rocketing cost of living and yes corruption. There is corruption and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out a while ago, the corruption is pervasive in our society and this government will soon find out how difficult it is to deal with the contraband trade and how hard it is to deal with the mordida and all these acts of corruption that exist in our society.”

Minister of Housing, Michael Finnegan focused much of his presentation on the special accommodation agreement signed by the former administration and Telemedia.

Michael Finnegan, Minister of Housing

“Certainly Mr. Speaker that wasn’t accommodating to the Belizean people. How signing off on all those things to a rich corporation and you call it accommodating when you have the poor Belizean people who can’t pay their own light bill, they can’t pay their water bill and telephone agreement. The agreement itself in my view was shocking, it was upsetting when it met the naked eye. To put it in a more professional and formal wording, this accommodation agreement as far as I am concerned was reviling and nauseating. Now imagine the government giving all this and that away when the poor people of this country are suffering to a multi million corporation. Can you imagine what kind of heart, what kind of feeling you have for the masses of the poor or the people out there when you are giving away the country lock, stock and barrel through an accommodation agreement.”

Finnegan went on to point out ways in which the money could have been used to better the lives of the nation’s poor people. In wrapping up the debate Prime Minister Dean Barrow recognized the contributions from both sides of the House. The Prime Minister addressed the issue of rising food prices.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow



“This is why I said that the explosion in food and fuel prices represents the greatest crisis with respect to those two commodities in the history of mankind and that is what we are grappling with. Now, two things, the expert suggests that certainly where agricultural commodity prices are concerned what we have been experiencing is a bubble and a bubble that has now burst. After, if you follow the commodities indices, after prices ramped up in February and March, they came down, they ramped up again and they are now back down. When they ramped back up, they did not reach the levels they had reached in February and March. The point is that as best as can be determined agricultural commodities prices have peaked in terms of the highs that we saw that were historical. That is not to say that we will not still continue to experience a global shift with respect to agricultural commodities and their prices, but it does mean that there is going to feel some relief from what we have been experiencing. It does not mean that prices will go so low that the opportunities that the Minister of Agriculture spoke about for our farmers, for our agriculturally productive sector will disappear. Prices are not going to go back at least for the next 15 years to where they were before the crisis started but there is going to be some relief for the people of this country in respect to this dip in global prices for food.”

The Prime Minister also addressed concerns raised by Albert area representative Mark Espat regarding collections within the oil industry.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“The Geology and Petroleum Department will be beefed up. We needed to know where we were with the windfall tax, we needed to know where we were with the increases in income tax before we could make proper provisions for this. But you are absolutely right in saying that we must invest more in the Geology and Petroleum Department and indeed in the Income Tax Department if we are going to be sure that insofar as income tax is concerned nobody is pulling the wool over our eyes. I want to assure you that the income Tax Department is completely ceased of the discrepancies to which you pointed pertaining to BNE’s figures and the analysis made by others including the ACB. And I am positive that on the basis on the kinds of audits that will be done and on the basis of the looking out that those in the Income Tax Department know they must do, that those in the Income Tax Department have said to me they are determined to do, we will get our fair share of the oil revenue as it pertains to income tax.”

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