In today's Senate meeting, a loan motion for US $25.9 million was debated. It's the loan from the Caribbean Development Bank that will be used for renovations for the George Price Highway from Belize City to Hattieville. Many of the senators shared the same sentiments regarding the motion: it's a lot of money with very little information attached to it. Here are the concerns they raised.
Patrick Faber, UDP Senator
"We are absolutely void of the details. Now I respect what the leader of government business has said. In fact, after listening to the minister with responsibility for infrastructure in the House debate on this matter, we got a little more clarification as to what the scope of works for this project is."
"But when I saw, Madam President, that we got a flash driver, I mi think there were a great lot of details. It's just the loan agreement. We still don't know the details. We have to rely on what colleagues are saying."
"And in fact, I think we in the Senate are lucky compared to what the House members got if I heard my party leader and the leader of the opposition correctly. They didn't give them any details. So of course, the colleagues in the House of Representatives had to get up and say that this is how, and I've said this over and over and over in Parliament, Madam Speaker, in both houses, if you don't give the information, then you subject yourself to the scrutiny of the people, and we are the voices of the people in here."
Kevin Herrera, Business Senator
"I was quite frankly similar to Senator Faber, expecting more information with respect to this motion."
"If you look at the loan motion, we're talking about 69 million Belize dollars. This is not a small sum, Madam President. And so I believe that for the administration, for the government, to ask support for a loan motion such as this, that you'd expect that more information would have been provided."
Janelle Chanona, NGO Senator
"I will only say, Madam President, that I think informed decision-making, even with these types of works, benefits from that inclusive insight. Because I note that while colleagues are saying this is a significant amount of money, I'm sitting here thinking, looking at what water has done, and some of those engineers will tell you what we're dealing with on the northern and western highway are underground rivers."
"So I'm sitting here thinking perhaps if there was the benefit of these numbers, we could even be sitting here saying this is not even enough and then not be surprised, but certainly disappointed that there's another supplemental."
"So I just want to reiterate and align with the contributions that the information should not be withheld because certainly I think the Senate has shown that we read."
Senator Eamon Courtenay then asked for a suspension since the Chief Engineer from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development was there and would be able to answer their questions. Here's what he said when they returned.
Eamon Courtenay, Leader of Government Business
"We suspended the sitting of the Senate in order to receive the Chief Engineer from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Mr. Evondale Moody. Mr. Moody was available to my colleague senators to answer their questions and to provide clarifications on the many issues that they raised."
"As I indicated before the suspension, had I known that these technical concerns existed, we would have made arrangements for this to happen before the Senate meeting. From my perspective, Madam President, members of the Senate, it appears to me to be a common ground between all senators that the rehabilitation of the George Price Highway from Belize City to Hattieville is required."
"The concerns of colleagues were twofold. One, whether the technical work had been done, and secondly, whether the cost of per kilometer or per mile was value for money. It is my assessment that based on the discussions and questions during the Committee of the Whole Senate, Mr. Moody was able, at least to my satisfaction, to satisfy senators that the technical work has been done that is required for the very difficult and challenging rehabilitation to be undertaken. And secondly, I specifically asked him at the very end of the session whether the motion, the quantity, the monies in the motion, vis-a-vis the work to be done, was value for money. And he expressed his professional opinion that we are getting value for money."
