The House of Representatives met again today for day 2 of the marathon debate on the budget which seeks approval for all public expenditure in the next fiscal year.
Yesterday, Opposition Leader "Shyne" Barrow opened the debate on the Prime Minister's 2nd proposed budget. It was one of his last public appearances before this Sunday's National Convention for the Leadership of the United Democratic Party.
Today, Tracy Panton, Barrow's opponent in the leadership race, got her turn to analyze the proposed budget, and she made a 40-minute intervention. We report first with her insistence that the Briceno Administration didn't provide the IMF with all the necessary information for a true assessment of the country's finances.
Here's why Panton, a former government minister, insisted that this omission created a flawed and incomplete assessment to occur of just how strong Belize's financial recovery was:
Hon.Tracy Taegar-Panton - UDP Area Rep., Albert Division
"The IMF Article 4 Consultative team can only draw their conclusions from the financial data provided to them. On April 23, 2021, the members of this National Assembly approved revenue estimates of $1.038 billion, and expenditure of 1.204 billion, accounting for an overall deficit of approximately 166 million. Truth be told, Madam Speaker, this administration quickly recognized that its budget cuts were not at all realistic. They had to return to the House for approval of 3 supplementary appropriation allocations, amounting to another 200 million in expenditure, that was not captured in either the IMF review or the data published in this year's budgeted estimates. When we report, Madam Speaker, to multilateral agencies, and to the Belizean people, there is a duty, a responsibility, an obligation… to provide all the information, so we can have a clearer picture of where things really are."
This evening, we contacted Prime Minister Briceno for a response to Panton's comments.
Via WhatsApp, he told us, quote, "What she didn't seem to understand is that we did these supplementary appropriations because our revenues were over performing and we had to do these spendings. Revenues increased by almost $200M because we were successful in opening up the economy, and we had to continue to spend on Covid-19. We have to protect our people. She [is] either misleading or doesn't understand the numbers in the budget." End quote.
