Unionists boycott budget meeting after security mistake
One week before its presentation in the House of Representatives, this morning the National Economic Council met in Belize City to discuss the Musa administration’s budget for the financial year 2007-2008. The officials around the table included Prime Minister Said Musa, Deputy Prime Minister John Briceño, Minister of National Development Mark Espat, and Financial Secretary Dr. Carla Barnett. According to Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of National Development, Hugh O’Brien, the session was convened to discuss recent economic developments, fiscal performance during 2006/2007, and budget proposals for the upcoming year. Also present at the meeting was Sebastian Espinoza, a director of the financial consulting firm Houlihan, Lokey, Howard, and Zukin, who spoke about Belize’s debt restructuring initiatives. The discussions that followed the formal presentations were to have included contributions from representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Bureau, the Tourism Industry Association, as well as delegates of various export industries and the labour movement. But according to George Frazer, Deputy General Secretary of the N.T.U.C.B., when he showed up at the Central Bank, security guards denied him access to the building. During the back and forth that ensued, C.E.O. O’Brien and Minister Espat intervened to assure Frazer that the confusion was caused by an administrative mistake and by no means was he being deliberately barred from the proceedings. Frazer was then invited to join in the talks upstairs, but by then the unionist says the damage was already done.
George Frazer, Deputy Gen. Sec., N.T.U.C.B.
“I was stopped right at the entrance gate. The security seh they have instructions that George Frazer no fu go in. So afterwards they seh if I want them to allow me to go to the main entrance of the Central Bank, because that’s where the meeting is. And they told me the same thing. A police, an ASP, a senior office was there and he came and seh, if they seh you can’t go in, you can’t go in. I seh I no di force myself to go in, but I regard this as a blatant disrespect. Afterwards, couple minutes they seh I could go in. I am not going in there to be taken for any fool and I went to lodge a strong protest. The P.M. was speaking and I asked for time out and I made clear in front of everybody my indignation, because this is gross disrespect. How they wah seh because my name no deh, deh. I am one of the members of this committee and we always come dah meeting, I noh know if they think I dah wah terrorist or something.”
“Let us discuss these issues, see where the priorities are. We know money limited, but then when you just come and they hand you a document and seh dis dah the budget, you noh have much input, because now this will be presented to the house in another week or so, to me…”
Janelle Chanona
“That’s what I’m saying they are in there discussing that, they ask you to come in saying it was a mistake, I gather, and you’re out here…”
George Frazer
“I see dis as a whitewash job. This is a done deal, this budget yah. Two years ago they invited us as the process was going along and some adjustments were made. And I noh see this as being respectful, not only of myself but of the trade union movement. We represent thousands of people, thousands of teachers and others, and my president is here with me in solidarity. We came and this is the kind of treatment, I like I am any terrorist. I mean, this is unforgivable.”
This afternoon O’Brien maintained his position to News Five, asserting that the security guards of the Central Bank were simply following orders that only those persons on the approved list were to be allowed inside. O’Brien says Frazer was to have been included as one of the four N.T.U.C.B. invitees, but was not specifically named, hence the delay and confusion. He denies that any instruction was given to the guards to target the unionist and bar his entry. In a release issued by the Government Press Office this evening, Frazer is referred to as “apparently frustrated by the security procedure” and “in a combative mood.”
