Six Months into 2021 Fiscal Year, GOB Needs More Money

The Briceno administration, after having introduced a new budget for the fiscal year 2021 at the end of March, has tabled a bill that would make way for an act to appropriate additional sums of money for use within the existing financial calendar. It was the first of two proposed laws described as General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation Bills. The government of the People’s United Party, returning to parliament six months into the new fiscal year to have approved extra monies to carry over the public service until March 2022, has been met with cold water by the opposition. According to Leader of the Opposition, Patrick Faber, what is being presented before the House of Representatives is lacking in details, something that the former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee railed against when he was on the other side of the floor.

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, Leader of the Opposition

“We have to determine that what he is asking us to approve today, in retrospect, is basically what they overspent.  He came to this honorable house, for instance, Madam Speaker, and said that they only bought, I don’t remember the exact number now but actually specify what vehicles were bought but now we’re seeing in the supplementary that almost half a million was spent on vehicles between his Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health.  We see, Madam Speaker, again some spending that has happened here with very little details happening, something that the member for Cayo South use to complain profusely about but now he seems to be presiding over.”

Julius Espat

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development

“Just in response to the Leader of the Opposition, most of the projects that are being mentioned are projects that we inherited in the pipeline.  The Caracol Road, for example, is one of them.  So it’s not a project that was initiated by us, but in reality, it’s a project that we saved twenty-eight million dollars on, something that you all did not even conceive of.  The other one is the Haulover Bridge, again, a project that we inherited from you all.  But look at the figures, we inherited another twenty-eight million dollars on that project by looking at and analyzing the project.  So in reality we have saved fifty-six million dollars just on those two projects, Leader of the Opposition.”

Oscar Requena

Oscar Requena, Area Representative, Toledo West

“You had your turn, it’s our turn.  And that’s what we are doing, we are governing this country in a manner that the people are going to benefit and particularly the rural areas that were abandoned are now going to participate meaningfully in the development of this nation.  So Madam Speaker, I want to end by saying that I lent my full support to this appropriation bill because we have a government led by our prime minister that has a heart for the people of this country given all the challenges that we have faced because of COVID and the bad economy that we inherited, we are doing a lot.”