He may not be the minister of finance anymore but minister of Investment Ralph Fonseca has made it clear that he still has say and holds sway in the Ministry's money matters. But in the past two weeks, Fonseca's trademark road show bluster and braggadocio were missing when government went to the IMF, the IDB and the World Bank contrite, repentant and ready to chart a new course with a new captain. But if it seems that government's request to the IMF for "Enhanced Surveillance" is a renouncement of the typically grittier Fonseca approach, think again, today Fonseca made it clear to Alfonso noble, that from his seat, which is suddenly in the upper deck, it's the same song:
Alfonso Noble
"People view that when the IMF comes into a country and in fact in the manner that they are coming like an observer or kind of like a median for the economic policies of the country that we are in dire straights. That we are running off the tracks."
Hon. Ralph Fonseca – Minister of Investment
"That is nonsense!"
"The IMF comes to Belize all the time last year it was here. I think three times. The Prime Minister invited them here at this particular time because as you know we are going through a special restructuring of the budget program, if you like, because of new conditions that have come up like oil prices and stuff like that. And we are, we want to be sure that they are in tandem with us that they understand what we are doing and what goals we are setting for ourselves. Also give them the access so the can monitor what we are doing."
Alfonso Noble
"Are we going to pull through without a structural adjustment by the IMF."
Hon. Ralph Fonseca
"I'm totally convinced that we will. Organizations such like yours are trying to sell to the Belizean people that we are in some terrible crisis that we need to pull through. What Belize if going through is what the rest of the world is going through because of the new world conditions. And everyone has to be reprogramming. As a matter of fact Belize is very well off relative to most of the countries around us and you know that. But your organization is doing the best that it can to cry wolf and if you keep on crying wolf when the day comes that you really need to cry wolf they will have no respect for you whatsoever."
As always, we take Fonseca's somewhat overheated attack in good stride, noting that if "crying wolf" means pointing to the 100 million dollar disparity between his January projection of a 66 million dollar recurrent surplus and Dr. Carla Barnett's October forecast of a 40 million dollar deficit, well then, we'll be that crying wolf. And, we should note, it was Fonseca's cabinet colleague, Joe Coye, not us, who said that it was a mistake not to have addressed the country's looming financial crisis a year ago. And from wolves to hawks, the IMF representatives are expected on October 25 to November 4th. To implement the "Enhanced surveillance" program government requested. And information to 7 News that also on the way in next week, on Tuesday to be exact, is Bears Sterns; Government's newly rediscovered financiers of first resort, who offered a financing package in September which the Prime Minister said he refused.