A project aimed at upgrading two facilities in San Ignacio Town has come to fruition through collaboration with the India-UN Partnership Fund, the UNDP, and the ministries of Human Development, Agriculture, Sustainable Development and Immigration.
The project saw improvements to the Youth Challenge Program and the construction of a multi purpose facility to address youth vulnerability to crime and to make an impact on sports and health in the community. The India-UN Partnership granted US$590,000 towards this cause.
Ian King, the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Belize, shared a few words about this project.
PM Travelling
Tomorrow, the unions plan to step up their public agitation against the government, but PM John Briceno will have to hear about it in the news.
An official release announces that he departed the country today, May 1, 2021.
Hon. Cordel Hyde is acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Development.
The Prime Minister is expected to return to the country on Wednesday, May 5.
Caribbean and Latin American Cultural Fest In Taiwan
And while it might be too broke even to cover the departure tax on the PM's trip, that doesn't mean that you have to miss out on cultural immersion.
That's because tonight we're giving you a taste of the one-day Caribbean and Latin American Cultural Fest organized, in part, by Belizeans and put on in Taiwan. It's called the Culture Uma Fest, and it had its inaugural edition on April 17th at Taipei's Maji Square.
Among the attendees was Belize's Ambassador to Taiwan Dr. Candice Pitts. She calls the festival a resounding success and on Friday via Zoom from Taipei she told Cherisse Halsall what it was like to witness Belizean Brukdown dance in Taiwan.
10k For Taiwan Song
But Pitts is far from just an observer in her diplomatic posts. She's been hard at work fulfilling her mandate, looking out for Belizean business interests, and doing her part to promote our Belizean culture and entertainment.
Now, the new ambassador has secured a commission from the Central American Trade Office, $10,000.00BZD allocated for the production of five September celebration music videos.
Dr. Pitts explained that the artists chosen for the commission will have to focus on highlighting the beauty of Belize as well as the country's long-standing bilateral relationship with Taiwan. Here's more.
The PUDP Blame Game Over Tax and Spend
Earlier we told you that PM Briceno is travelling, but even while he's away his austerity budget continues to make the news here at home. That's mainly due to the outrage from the unions paid by the public purse who have forcefully rejected the government's proposal to cut salaries by an average of 10% while extending an increment freeze for 3 more years.
But, during the 2-day budget debate in the House, and the 10-hour debate in the Senate, elected and selected representatives from both mass parties have been pointing fingers back and forth as to why it is that the country has a 4-billion-dollar debt, and who is ultimately responsible for the current financial crisis.
To hear it told from the Briceno Government's perspective, the former Barrow Administration had been engaging in unsustainable public spending, and that their mismanagement of public finances was only worsened when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. In their defense, representatives of the Opposition UDP, keep insisting the PUP is trying to downplay the impact of the pandemic, and the thousands of Belizeans who had to depend on Government aid to feed their families.
During their press conference last Friday, the UDP took on a few of those tough questions about public finances. Here is the back-and-forth from the two mass parties, on whether or not the Barrow Administration failed to collect 10s of millions of dollars in land taxes:
Hon. Eamon Courtenay - Senator/Leader of Government Business
"The United Democratic Party left this country as the 6th most indebted nation and we experience the 5th worst economic crash on 2020 under the United Democratic Party. That is what we are facing. And so it is time that we reckon and take account of where we are. We say do not punish the taxpayers, the students, the public, because taxes that should have been collected by the UDP were not collected and are now not available to pay public officers and teachers, to provide relief, and to spend on education, health, housing, and citizen security. It was the United Democratic Party who gave repeated land tax amnesty to wealthy landowners including the infamous 90 million write-offs last year in the midst of an economic crisis"
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte- Former Attorney General
"Collection of land taxes has always been an issue and no doubt under the UDP administration was an issue. Those write offs were not write offs like they keep repeating. We went to the National Assembly and what we did, correct me if I am wrong Hugo, what we did was we passed laws that would last, for example 6 months.
After 6 months or 8 months the law would come off the books. And those laws would say, let us say that you Daniel own a certain amount of land and you owe like $500 thousand land taxes. We would tell you if you come in to the Natural Resources office and admit and sign and agree that you owe that $500 thousand dollars then we could work out a payment plan for you to get a haircut on that and maybe pay back like $400 thousand or $350. So, in other words you would get a discount. It is like the City Council does if you pay your land tax in advance and things like that. However, if you owed that amount of taxes and you didn't want to come into the Natural Resources Ministry to agree and agree to pay then when the law fell then you still owe that money. So it was not a writeoff. So, like the party leader said about the Minister of Natural Resources said, all that money is still out there sir, go and collect it."
Hon. Hugo Patt- Former Minister of Natural Resources
"The Lands Department operates just like a bank. It won't tell you that you owe $100 today. Every end of month the system at the Lands Department automatically generates interest. So that, if you, after Daniel owes $100 in January, don't expect Daniel to owe $100 in February. It will just increase as per how the system is programmed."
Hon. Patrick Faber
"Let me use the opportunity to reiterate again how very pleased I was to hear the new Minister of Natural Resources say that no stones will go unturned and we will not let him forget that he said those words. Not only for land tax but for all outstanding taxes. In fact, it is a fundamental pillar under the Prime Minister's recovery plan that he is going to go out there and collect all taxes that are due to this government."
During the Senate Debate, PUP's Leader of Government Business, Eamon Courtenay, accused the Barrow Administration of failing to collect half a billion dollars in taxes. Last Friday, we put that assertion to UDP head table, and here's what Senator Michael Peyrefitte, had to say:
Hon. Eamon Courtney- Senator/ Leader of Government Business
"This government comes into office on the 12th of November 2020. And one of the first things is to look at the revenue due and payable to the country and people of Belize and we were astounded madam president to learn from the Director of the Belize Tax Services that our estimate of taxes not collected by the Dean Barrow administration amounts to $500 million dollars."
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte- Former Attorney General
"I don't believe a word that Courtney says. So until the Belize Tax Service can produce that to us for us to analyze it, we won't respond to that."
Debt And Doublespeak
We also asked the Opposition Leader for his comment on the PUP Government's insistence that his party was engaging in unsustainable public spending. Every so often, the PUP reminds the public about the tacos and pibil party that he gifted his Collet constituents using Petrocaribe funds.
Here's how he answered us when we ask about the PUP's insistence that his party's pre-COVID spending did not meet prudent fiscal standards:
Hon. Patrick Faber, Opposition Leader
"It cannot be gloss over that in fact the revenue fell tremendously during that financial year of 2019/2020 that in fact we were not able to get things up to where we want it, where the predictions were and so as a result of that the spending had to be increased which is really what caused the debt to GDP ratio to go up. If your GDP is not where it should be because your revenues are not coming in and the productive sector is not working and you're borrowing more, albeit internal borrowing and in my presentation I made the point that there is a difference in terms of what constitutes your debt, but it was internal borrowing in order to make these payments, but it is because also we believe and we make no apology. The prime minister at the time made no apology that under the circumstances off covid, people had to continue to eat and we maintained up to now that the way to fix what is wrong in this economy is not to cut the salaries of the public servants. That is counterproductive. Yes it is true, yes that happened, but it was difficult circumstances that took us there and I would dare to say that had the Barrow administration not done that, the financial position that we find ourselves in today, albeit not the best situation, it would have been much worse."
Reporter
"But sir, they try to insist that unsustainable borrowing happened or began even before pre-covid management of the nation's finances."
Hon. Patrick Faber, Opposition Leader
"This was the point I was making to the prime minister and I saw that he picked it up and also the deputy prime minister picked it up - when the prime minister in his presentation spoke to Belize being number 6th in terms of our debt in the world, I want to challenge them go back one year and find where Belize's ranking was. Makes the point that while the situation was bad, the debt to GDP ratio was probably at its max, maybe 98-99% indeed, but it was not at 134%. It is the covid situation that caused that to be the case and they want to gloss over that situation. I'm not saying that things were not bad in fact you will see that the whole world was moving towards some global recession."
Hon. Shyne Barrow, UDP Area Rep., Mesopotamia
"I understand that the government is still borrowing one million dollars a day, so the difference between the UDP and the PUP is we borrowed to feed the people, the 120,000 people that are unemployed because of covid19. We borrowed to respond to the state of emergency to keep the teachers, the public servants employed and paid at full salary, so they are still borrowing. So when they say that we just borrow, they are still borrowing."
Mike P Doubles Down Against NTUCB
And in our final story from last Friday's press conference, former Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte soundly rejected the assertion from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize that he lied.
You'll remember last Wednesday when the press asked him to discuss the delays in implementing the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Peyrefitte said that the reason it didn't progress was that the NTUCB failed to get back to him on which oversight laws should be prioritized and implemented. The umbrella union fired off a response the following day to say that he did not inform them about any such list of oversight laws and that if he did, they would have responded with urgency.
They also referred to his allegations, as quote, "…disturbing and confrontational to the unions of Belize" End quote.
Former AG Peyrefitte insisted that he is sticking to his story:
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte- Former Attorney General
"I've seen the release and all I want to say is that I'm disappointed in what the release says and I maintained what I said on Wednesday. I stick by what I said on Wednesday: if the NTUCB chooses to stick by what they said in their release then the NTUCB and I will have to respectfully agree to disagree and we move on."
Reporter
"Let me quote one line from the release: at no time did the AG make any request of the NTUCB for submissions regarding the passage of the legislation. And they were saying if this was in fact done, that they would have been expedient in giving a response. In essence they're saying you are lying, sir."
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte- Former Attorney General
"And I refer you back to what I said on Wednesday."
