The unions and the Chamber of Commerce have already rejected Government’s decision to pay a 1-million-dollar “honorarium to the teachers who didn’t strike last October. The unions called it union busting, and today, the NGO community called it “unauthorized spending
In a statement titled, “the Belize Network of NGO’s Rebukes GOB’s Unauthorized Spending , the NGO’s said that they are in full support of the statements made by the chamber and the NTUCB.
That statement says, quote, “GOB’s decision to spend $1 million of unbudgeted taxpayers’ money to reward teachers who did not participate in the strike amounts to an expenditure that was not approved by the National Assembly. This makes a mockery of the national budget planning exercise.
The statement continues to scold the Government, pointing out that the country is cutting expenses and increasing taxes, and so quote, “It is irreconcilable that Belmopan wants to spend un-budgeted monies during what should be an era of fiscal tightening. Â End quote.
We do note that we checked the budget book for the 2017/2017 fiscal year, which is officially known as the Draft Estimates of Revenues and Expenditure. We couldn’t find any line items for a million dollars to be paid as an honorarium to the teachers who didn’t strike. The closest thing to that was a line item for 465 thousand dollars, which was under the Ministry of Education’s Strategic Management Administration. We contacted Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber via text message for a comment, but up until news time, he hadn’t responded.
