Why Borrow Money to Build Another Administration Building in Belize City?

On Friday, the Social Security Board introduced a proposal for the construction of another administration building adjacent to the Eleanor Hall Building on Lake Independence Boulevard.  That undertaking would be covered by a twenty-four million dollar loan via a public/private partnership with the use of a special purpose vehicle similar to Belize Infrastructure Limited which was used to oversee the construction of the Eleanor Hall Building.  Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow weighed in on the latest initiative.

Shyne Barrow

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“The prime minister claims to have grown the economy so much and to have so much money and then we go to the hypocrisy of it all.  When the UDP built the Eleanor Hall Building which I thought was a great thing to invest in the Lake Independence community that has been an under-developed community, maybe an abandoned constituency.  I thought that was good for the people of Lake-I, to have such a structure there.  The minister from Lake-I said that’s a waste of money and they don’t need that there, so now explain to me, while our people are grappling with inflation, the highest cost of living, while businesses are closing, you don’t think we should have borrowed that twenty-four million to create that fund that I talked about where businesses can even borrow the monies to stay in business and then pay it back once inflation moves on.  So these are the types of things where the government says one thing while in opposition.  They decried the building of the Eleanor Hall, that was done under the BIL vehicle with the PetroCaribe money.  Now they are borrowing, the pensioners, the taxpayers‘ dollars for the wrong reason.  Do we really need a building there or do we need to keep our businesses open.”