P.U.P. Says G.O.B. Acted Illegally

Dean Barrow

Under the Petrocaribe initiative, the government has gotten access to hundreds of millions of dollars from Venezuela – two hundred and twenty-eight million to be exact. That very concessionary loan from Venezuela, just like a grant to government back in 2007, wasn’t taken before the House of Representatives. In this instance, however, there has been no accounting of how all those millions have been spent. All we know is that the government suddenly seems very flush with cash, hams, turkeys and political goodies to give away. According to Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Julius Espat, P.M. Barrow has done absolutely nothing different than what was done by former P.M. Said Musa in 2007 – and likely this is even much worse, because nobody knows how the money was spent.  

Julius Espat, Deputy Leader, P.U.P.

“Government made an agreement to borrow money and didn’t go to the National Assembly to seek approval for the loan – three things, so that’s one. The second thing is that they’re putting the motion to the House under the Finance and Audit Reform Act, and that Act specifies that the Legislature can give Government permission to borrow money from a lending institution. The Petrocaribe fund is not a bank, it’s not a lending institution…it is a company so that again is flawed, so that’s two. And three, they’ve already borrowed the money and they’ve already spent a large portion of the money and they have not come to the House to seek approval for the spending of the money and then it even goes further than that. They have borrowed the money, in our opinion illegally, they have spent the money illegally, but there is a third critical part – which is they now need to take money out of the Consolidated Fund to pay back the loan, and they don’t have the authority to do that under the Constitution of Belize without the authority of the Legislation.”

Reporter

Julius Espat

“Has there been to your knowledge, any accounting of how that money has been spent since 2012?”

Julius Espat

“Absolutely none. No accounting, and I am a member of the House, and it has never been brought to the House. Maybe why they don’t want us to look at where the money is being spent is because we believe that a large portion of the money is being spent for political use. For example the Mother’s Day giveaway…you are having money being spent for specific Area Representatives that are only U.D.P., so that is a political spending of the people’s money and that’s why accountability is important and oversight is important. You see this is not their money. They are not borrowing and the Prime Minister is paying it back out of his private funds…no. It is the Belizean people’s money and there are laws in Belize that specify how this should be done.”