Last night, we brought extensive coverage of yesterday's Senate Debate on the 76-million-dollar settlement between the government and Belize International Services Limited, as well as the appointment of Dorothy Bradley as Acting Auditor General for two years.
While those two matters consumed a large portion of the 5-hour Senate Meeting, the upper house chamber did address several other pieces of government business.
We now report on yesterday's debate about the two supplementary appropriation bills the Briceno government has brought to parliament tonight. The first is for the $76 million, 254 thousand, 750 dollars which the Briceno Administration has agreed to pay BISL as full settlement for the former Barrow government's nationalization of the registries. That one is the General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation Bill #2 of the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
There is also another, called the General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation #3, and the government wants parliamentary approval to spend another 28.7 million dollars in that bill. It's their second supplementary appropriation for the running of the public service. In April, the Briceno Government passed a 1.36-billion-dollar budget, and three months later, they returned for their first supplementary, asking for permission to spend 68 million more.
So, why does the government need another 28.7 million dollars this early? That's what different members of the Senate asked yesterday, and here are a few excerpts from that debate:
Senator Beverly Williams - UDP Representative
"The purchase of vehicles is $750,000. We just got into trouble, Madam President, for talking out of place on vehicles. 750, what are we buying that for? Capital improvement or building $72,000, Ministry of Education, which building which one of the government buildings? And again, the concern is the procurement process on whether we are going to follow the Finance on Audit Act and ensure that we get the best contractor in for that one. Subsidies: we're a government of subsidies, now: bread and fuel. I'll leave the bread for Tony, my colleague here, Senator Herrera. I don't eat bread, by the way. So… The doctor said not to do it. Sorry, Tony, I can't buy bread from your bakery, but I am hoping that the subsidy on fuel includes - I see a line item under the Ministry of Tourism, I believe, and I am hoping that the taximen are involved are included in this. So for me, Madam President, I look at this supplementary. It's all a big game, where there's no money again for the protection of these social safety nets, nothing in here for human development. And so I look at it as utter rubbish. [I] cannot support it."
Senator Collet Montejo - PUP Representative
"So I know that a lot leans on the National Sports Council and the Ministry of Youth and Sports. But as a nation, as a people, we've got to do more, all right. Semi-pro football is back. The Premier League is back. Verdes went to E l Salvador to represent us. Didn't do as well. But guess what? We made it to the second round. Or young people were out there with volleyball. Sports are coming back, and this government is committed to doing more."
Senator Tony Herrera - UDP Representative
"To the bread subsidy - very dear to me, my brother, very dear to me. Correction, I was longing for this opportunity to cry for the bakers of this country. Yes, sir. I will support it. That is not even a question. I will support it. But I am saying that this took 90 days when it was first - what the term, 'beat chest,' when the minister beat his chest to say, the UDP is just waiting for us to raise the 16 ounces, but we will give a 25 cents subsidy. Next day? Ninety days now, you know, we still haven't gotten that subsidy. But let me tell you something, more important to that, the price of flour since that subsidy was said, from $84 to $102.50. That's a big increment. That's a big increment. So that shilling gets swallowed, just like holes on the Corozal streets. If you drop it, it's gone, just like that. So, we welcome the $0.25, but we would say, you know what, that is gone; that is consumed already."
Senator Alvin Benguche - Church Representative
"And also, Madam President, the bread subsidy. As a senator representing the church, I want to commend it because it goes to the epitome, the bottom line of the common Belizean. And the fact that we should be able to, as in the past, buy an affordable loaf of bread that also brings to our attention."
Senator Elena Smith - Labour Representative
"Maybe we are at number three, and we're just one for month by month in, minister. We are the third supplement appropriation?"
Senator Eamon Courtenay - Leader of Government Business
"Madam, I'm president. I can't allow today to pass to express serious disappointment of this side with the characterization of this supplementary as utter rubbish. Not only that unparliamentary but Madam President, when one looks at what we are talking about: public business subsidy for bakers, subsidy for tourist tour guides, subsidy for public transport for the United Democratic Party parties, a lead senator to characterize that as utter rubbish. It is to be condemned. Over $6 million for the completion of the Sarteneja Road is utter rubbish, according to the UDP. We had floods as a result of rain, an act of God. And this government has come for $12 million to respond to the needs of the people, the farmers, the people who are going to school, the people who use the roads, the people who use the bridges across this country, people who farm have been flooded. And we come here, and we are being told that that is utter rubbish. When I'm president, there are times when politics is taken too far. And this is one of those occasions."
