Gov’t Admits “Slippage;” Criminal Complaint?

Eamon Courtenay

With the FinSec’s purported confession that the Finance and Audit Reform Act has not been complied with, is there a course of action that can be taken against government by the opposition?

Eamon Courtenay, P.U.P. Senator

“Anybody can make a complaint and I won’t speak for the other parties, I will speak for the People’s United Party.  As you know, this came to our attention yesterday.  We had the admission from the Financial Secretary in the senate committee yesterday.  We have briefed the party leader and I think that what we are going to do is to await the detailed information from the Financial Secretary and then call the executive to meet and take a decision.  But what is clear is that there has been noncompliance with the Finance and Audit Reform Act which is a criminal offense, and certainly at this stage a complaint can be made to the police for an investigation to be done and for a prosecution to be launched for criminal violation of the Finance and Audit Reform Act.”

Valerie Woods

Reporter

“What do you make of the explanation as to why it took so long for these appropriations to take place?”

Valerie Woods, P.U.P. Senator

“As we understand it yesterday, the explanation given was basically [that] it’s a slippage, we just got busy and we missed deadlines.  I believe the Leader of Government Business’ specific reference was that he concedes that we have missed deadlines.  It’s important for Belizeans to understand that very admission is also admitting that they the government had violated the law.  In my contribution I did say that I found the excuses to be pathetic.  They are pathetic excuses because it is a matter of providing explanations, which is one aspect of it, as to we were approved, been given approval for X millions of dollars to do ABC.  We went over by X million dollars and these are the reasons why we went over.  We are not provided that.”