D.F.C. bill receives second reading
The Development Finance Corporation Bill also received its second reading this morning. The act, seeks to make new provisions for the DFC and repeal the 2000-2003 act. According to PM Barrow, it was no easy task getting a lending agency to lend them funds for the restart and the new provision as a result of the loan from the Caribbean Development Bank. The bill had the support of the People’s United Party, but comments made by Briceño in praising the installment of a code of ethics and the composition of the board, nonetheless raised the ire of those on the opposite side of the floor.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“What the bill is doing is to in particular provide for a strengthened board of directors for the D.F.C. so that we might achieve the nirvana of proper administration and in doing that, what is happening is that unlike previously when the minister responsible for D.F.C. totally appointed and controlled the board of directors, now the minister will appoint but in the majority, those appointees will actually be the appointees of various independent organization. The board of directors shall be nine persons, Mr. Speaker, of whom six shall be persons who are not public officers, three shall be government representatives. The government representatives are the financial secretary, the C.E.O. from economic Development and the C.E.O. of agriculture. There are five representatives of the private sector nominated by the following organizations, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Belize Bar Association, the Belize Institute of Chartered Public Accountants, one person nominated by the Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize, and there is also an appointee of the Belize Credit Union League. There is a code of ethics that they will have to subscribe to and there are very strict requirements to ensure that in fact everything is run in a manner that will be absolutely squeaky clean.”
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“Certainly we need to congratulate the government because this is one instance where they met some work that was already started in producing this bill because this work started from—please man mek we give credit where it is due—the work really started from back in 2006. There was a lot of positive things that happened under D.F.C. Please man not everything went bad. Let’s be real here, let’s accept the truth here that one of the first things it did was reduce interest rates. Remember in 1998 interest rates at the bank were very high and it is through the efforts of the D.F.C. interest rates went down to about twelve percent. So again, this is something that we need to recognize some of the things that the D.F.C. have done. But we know about the abuses, we recognize it and that’s why in 2006 the government had to make some changes to save the D.F.C. and start the work, which is what the P.M. is presenting here, the Minister of Finance to this National Assembly. The D.F.C. certainly plays an important role in this country and I think maybe it is time for the government to consider—and not only for the D.F.C. but also for other statutory bodies—in also allowing the opposition to be able to name a member on the board.”
John Saldivar, Area Rep., Belmopan
“He brought it up in committee and we voted it down when he suggested that a member of the Peoples’ United Party sit on this D.F.C. board… what gall these people have, Mr. Speaker, after they have presided over the worst ten years of the Development Finance Corporation destruction, they actually want to recommend that a member of the People’s United Party be placed on the D.F.C. board?”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I accuse the leader of the opposition of gross dishonesty in suggesting that his party and his government did any work towards the revival of the D.F.C. The complete opposite is true. They were obliged by the Inter-American Development Bank to pass a law that restricted the D.F.C. from lending. They accepted the liquidation of the D.F.C. but as well passed this law that said the D.F.C. cannot lend again. How can you say you were involved in trying to revive the D.F.C.? How on earth can you ask to have a representative of the Peoples’ United Party place on the D.F.C. board? And it’s not just that given that you were the ones responsible for the D.F.C.’s destruction, that nobody in his right mind would ever contemplate putting you on the revive board, it is that you know the whole idea is to depoliticize the D.F.C. board because of the way you completely politicized it and wrecked it. How dare you ask for a political appointment on the board? It shows that you haven’t got it.”
Lending will recommence at the D.F.C. after approval from the C.D.B. board at the end of this month. Barrow says they are looking at obtaining other capital for D.F.C.
