The Executive, the Legislature and the Looming UHS Debt

Dean Barrow

According to the PM, it was for the House to decide if the debt to the Belize Bank would be paid. His argument rested on the basis that the debt cannot be paid from the consolidated revenue fund without the approval of the House. 

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“We bring the bill so that House may make its determination. We bring the bill so that the public which has of course the most fundamental interest in seeing how this plays out.  We bring the bill so that the entire nation can have this matter ventilated and, Madam Speaker, see what the decision of the House will be.  I’ve heard suggestions made that the House has no alternative but to vote the monies, but to support this supplementary allocation bill. I’ve heard further that certainly the members of the Executive, who are also members of the House, have no choice but to vote for a bill that could not have come to the House,  except the Executive so desired.  Well I want to get rid of those misconceptions right at the start. The Executive is different from the Legislature. Those of us who constitute members of the Executive act in a certain way as members of the Executive. When we come into parliament we are members of the Legislature and there are going to be times when, as members of the Legislature, we have to either take a route different from what actions on the part of the Executive might have suggested or take a route that at least provides some sort of a gloss on a position takenby the Executive. Long story short, and it is my conviction, likewise so advised by eminent authority that certainly this side of the House, like that side of the House, this side of the House is absolutely free to vote in accordance with the individual consciences of members and in accordance with what they conceive to be their instructions from those who sent them to this place.”