And while the poll, the press, and Senator Hulse are exerting domestic pressure on the government, the Opposition today went international. A press release from the UDP says that the party is asking international lending institutions to pressure the government into not using public funds to pay private loans.
The UDP's pressure will be directed to multilateral lending institutions which grant policy based loans. Those are loans with strings attached, meaning that the lenders like the CDB and the IDB demand high standards of transparency, accountability and good governance practices.
It may sound like just more angry bleating, but as a matter of fact, Belize, at this juncture, is very dependent on policy based loans. Between the IDB and the CDB they have committed $100 million in such loans. Only $20 million of this from the IDB has been disbursed but government requires $10 million more from the IDB and $25 million from the CDB to cover $55 million of its $90 million shortfall for this budget.
