Jose Coye: G.O.B. does have discipline to make changes
But with a cynical public ready to question the sincerity of the Musa administration’s promises to get the country out of its financial troubles…financial troubles created by the same people now claiming to have the answers, this morning Minister of Works and Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Jose Coye maintains that things have changed in Belmopan. In fact, Coye contends that the country has yet to reach the point where it needs a third party, like the I.M.F., to come in and manage the public purse.
Jose Coye, Min. of Works/Min. of State, Finance
?The question is going with a formal programme under the I.M.F. where those believe [that] where countries don?t have the discipline to do it, they believe that the I.M.F. being there to look over it gives them some more confidence. We feel strong that we do have the discipline to carry out the programme. So if one looks at the programme to see where the deficit will be controlled, where we will be able to reduce the aggregate demand, and certainly reduce the demand on the reserve to strengthen it, I think anyone looking at that formula and that programme will have to agree that that is a good programme. The question will come now, ?does this government have the discipline to carry out that programme?? We are saying that we do.?
?This is no longer a case of where it was before, where indeed management of the finance was left to a ministry or to an individual in a ministry. It is not so any longer. It is much more based now upon technical person within the government and of course ministers of government through the public finance committee.?
?I think the checks and balances in ensuring that we carry out the programme is, clearly to me, in the arena more of the social consensus. The nature, the framework and the contents of the programme is what we need to convince the people of this country. We are of the opinion that while we need international credibility, you cannot have international credibility unless you have credibility at home first.?
Godfrey Smith
?If you go and look at what the I.M.F. recommended and what we are doing, you will see tremendous amounts of similarity. We believe that we can do it on our own. I went through just now some of the measures, some, not all, that we will embark upon. There is no reason why we can?t do it and I?m confident we will be able to do it.?
According to the ministers, under the informal arrangement, representatives of the I.M.F. will be making periodic visits to Belize to monitor the government’s progress in its monetary policies.
