Tranche one, 10 Million of Municipal Bond as been subscribed!!
Darrell Bradley
While the government’s superbond negotiations are not going well, the Belize City Council is well under way in floating the twenty million dollar municipal bond. The first tranche is valued at ten million dollars and according to the mayor that tranche is fully subscribed and the funds will be drawn upon immediately to continue upgrading the city streets. There have been reports that the council will use the funds to pay debts to garbage companies. But Mayor Darrell Bradley says the bond legislation requires that the funds are used for the infrastructure and servicing the council’s bank overdraft facility.
Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
“The first tranche is ten million dollars, but remember it is a laddered program so that in the ten million there is some two-year, there is some five-year and there is some ten-year. And so that has been fully subscribed and what we’ve done si that we’ve closed that. So we are taking offers now for the second ten million and that has been healthy—we’ve had some healthy responses and we have already accepted bids on the second tranche which will be released in four to six months time. What we did is that we had to move one million dollars from the two year and we moved that to the five-year just to satisfy the interest because we found that persons were applying heavily for the five year and the ten year; they wanted the interest. And so we did that minor adjustment and with that we could have accommodated all the applications and we are now in negotiation with other persons to sell the second tranche. At this present moment, we will be able to withdraw funds immediately. And our projects are ongoing and so we’ve set up a project oversight committee, we are putting in tendering procedures. All these things of course we want to be in place before we start utilizing the funds in any significant way. But funds will be used, consumed within the next day. The legislation provides for the ways in which the funds could be used and so we will use the funds in accordance with the legislation. This is a specially designed project where maximum amount of resources is to go to infrastructure. And so it is an infrastructure project. It is not a project where we had said we want to pay off any creditors in any significant way. The only debt that we will pay off is that we will retire our overdraft facility; that is the only debt that we are going to require. All the remaining amounts of money will go towards streets and drains. We are going to continue the pavements on Freetown Road and Mapp Street and those will be the first streets that will be paid for by bond proceeds. We are going to be doing Chetumal Street in the very near future; that work is going to start next week. And so we have a number of streets that we want to get done before the Christmas and come January we are going to go full stream in implementation. The entire project is supposed to take eight months.”
All procurement information will be released in due time to the media with contract prices and contractors.
It’s easy to sell out a bond if you have access to the poor people’s money, the SSB.
If they retire the overdraft facility, and then draw on it again and again, will the bond proceeds retire it again and again? That could be a loophole to let the Mayor spend on whatever he wishes.
I hope for the best, but based on performance, I do not expect it. Time will tell who is right, and whatever the outcome, it should be a factor in the next election.
Barry,
Good job brother. You are about the only one that is really trying to make a difference. One day I will grace you with my presence and we will both take Belize to another direction.
Storm…… What, EXACTLY is your problem? Why are you so hell bent against the Mayor and this iniatiative? I mean to say, in all my life I have seen City Council administrations and Mayors come and go from both sides of the Political fence and NONE, I repeat, NONE, has had the presence of mind ( common sense) and integrity to do what this man is doing.
Answer this : If what the Mayor is doing is so questionable, how was it that as soon as the bonds hit the market they went like hot jonny cakes? Or do you truely believed that Mr. Bradley pulled a fast one on the financially savvy investors in the private sector as well?
Or maybe it’s personal and you may want to divulge what it is you have against the Mayor.
Am just asking, dude……………
@Louisville, let me explain.
I had high hopes for the mayor when he was elected, coming on the heels of the Moya kleptocracy.
He was energetic, he spent the city treasury in some places it could be seen. But then it turned out he was not paying the regular bills, like garbage collection, to a tune of millions. That had always been paid from city revenue, but now the money is gone.
If you or the mayor will give an honest and comprehensive answer to that question, where has the regular city revenue been spent [other than on expensive SUVs for elected officials], then maybe I can get behind him again. So at this time I have to view him as an irresponsible money manager — whether he is also corrupt, it is too early to know.
Time will tell if you and the mayor are right, or if he sadly proves me right. I am only interested in the facts, rhetoric doesn’t matter to me.
I would rather that the city and the nation succeed beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, but if you are honest with yourself, you must agree that we have been sliding down the slope to national poverty. We’re now lumped in with Somalia as a failed state in the international press, and more of the same won’t improve that result.