Over One Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars in Supplementary Allocations for 2022/2023

Prime Minister John Briceño

As we told you earlier, the Government of Belize will be spending twelve million dollars on flood relief and thirty-eight million U.S dollars to settle the Belize International Services Limited debt. Both of these expenses were brought to the House of Representatives today as supplementary allocation bills. These two bills are now the second and third such allocation being requested by the Briceño Administration for the current fiscal year. P.M. Briceño contends, however, that these are monies that are genuinely needed. Here is his justification.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think what is important to point out is that unlike the previous government are that they constantly use to break the law, we are following the law. These are monies that are genuinely needed for this country. We could sit down and say we have no more money and sit there and do nothing. We have not only a legal but moral responsibility to this country to be able to move it forward. What you need to be able to look, I think what is important is the development that has taken place in such a short time, how we have turn around the country, the economy, how we are getting more people working and more opportunities. We are still going through a difficult time, I understand that. But, a lot of the issues that are being brought up by the opposition are things we have no control over. We import most of what we eat. The prices continue to go up worldwide. The point that I would like to make is that the thirty eight point five million dollars U.S., of which eleven million dollars is going to be paid in Belize dollars, is final. That is it. We don’t owe them anything. They are not going to come later and say oh you owe them court fees or lawyer fees. That is it. It is settled there.”