The House of Representatives held its first business session for 2009 on Friday, January 23 – the main purpose of which was to pass a new law for the revival of the insolvent Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and the passage of a motion to bring into force new by-laws mandating commercial enterprises, as of February 1, to pay garbage collection fees directly to the Belize City Council or face the suspension of their trade license.
Even though there was significant commentary from both sides of the floor on these two hot topics, the new DFC bill enjoyed rare bi-partisan support from the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP), and the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP)—but the political back and forth over the demise of the DFC, and the Opposition’s bold request for a seat on the new DFC board made up for the shortage of debate on the actual content of the DFC bill.
Despite the travails the DFC experienced during the second term of the Musa administration—which saw its demise from being the main engine of government-driven economic growth to a shell corporation with no money to lend—the Barrow administration is negotiating with the Caribbean Development Bank (CBD) for a loan to breathe some life back into the corporation.
That is why at Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, the DFC bill, first introduced back in December 2008, was debated and passed in time for the upcoming board meeting of the CDB, which Government hopes will finally approve and release the much needed $25 million in seed funds for the DFC.
Barrow commented that this is “not much” when one thinks of the fact that under the Musa administration, DFC shelled out $30 million to the Novelos in a single day, and his administration had “extreme difficulty” even getting those funds from the CDB.
“So woeful was the tale of corruption that had attended the expiry of the last DFC that nobody wanted to lend us,” he said, citing a lack of trust.
A central feature of the new DFC bill is the establishment of an entirely new board, not controlled by the Government, which, the Prime Minister said, would run things “in a manner that is squeaky clean.”
The bill stipulates that control of the new DFC would be in the hands of independent organizations, which will have 6 of 9 seats on the board, including the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Belize Bar Association, Belize Institute of Chartered Public Accountants, Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize, and the Belize Credit Union League. There would be three government representatives: the Financial Secretary, the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture.
PUP Leader Johnny Briceño, the representative for Orange Walk Central, congratulated Government, and asked the Government to consider giving the PUP a seat on the DFC board. He also claimed credit for the PUP for starting work on the bill back in 2006.
“I accuse the Leader of the Opposition of gross dishonesty in suggesting that his party and his government did any work towards the revival of the DFC – the complete opposite is true… How can you say you were involved in trying to revive the DFC when you passed a law preventing you from doing anything of the sort?” Barrow retorted. “They went further. Tell the people, that as part of the condition for getting the PBL, social policy-based loan from the IDB, you had to sign something saying that you would never bring back the DFC.”
To Briceño’s request for a PUP seat on the DFC board, Barrow responded: “You still don’t get it! How on earth can you ask to have a representative of the People’s United Party placed on the DFC board? And it’s not just that given that you were the ones responsible for the DFC’s destruction that nobody in his right mind would ever contemplate putting you on the revived board. It is that, as you know, the whole idea is to depoliticize the DFC board, because of the way you completely politicized it and wrecked it.
“How dare you ask for a political appointment on the board? It shows you haven’t gotten it. Ah noh know when yuh wah eva get it!”
The more conflict-ridden debate at today’s House meeting on the CitCo by-laws centered, for the most part, on the substance of the new laws and allegations by the Opposition that City Hall would be imposing a new tax on Belize City voters, when, the Opposition says, the current administration at City Hall has “no standing” to do so, given the current state of affairs in the City.
In particular, Briceño and PUP Freetown area representative, Francis Fonseca, expressed strong opposition to the new Belize City Council garbage fees by-laws.
“I think it is incredulous that the Belize City Council, at the time when they are coming to the end of their term, that they are looking to impose more taxes on the residents of Belize City, because basically what this is doing, Mr. Speaker, is imposing taxes on all the businesses,” Briceño said.
“When you look at the schedule, they even go all the way to from – they are starting off from a ‘mom and pop’ business, which I guess must be when you just open a little window in your house if you want to sell a little panades or try to sell a little ideal or whatever it is. They are saying now that these small businesses will have to pay $120 a year for garbage disposal. Then the micro-business $840 per year; small businesses will have to pay $1,170 per year; a medium business will have to pay $4,344 in new taxes; large businesses will have to pay $8,568 and industrial customers will have to pay $15,960 – and that is only for picking up the garbage.”
Briceño added that if people want to dispose of their own garbage, there are also fees they would have to pay: a small motor car – $10 per trip, a pickup – $20, a 6-wheeler truck – $30, a 10-wheeler – $40, and trailers and larger containers $50 per trip.
“From any which angle you want to look at this, it is a new tax that would be imposed on the residents of Belize City,” Briceño charged.
Barrow disagreed with Briceño, asserting that the garbage fees would not constitute a new tax.
Ruling party officials said that businesses already pay fees for garbage collection, but they pay directly to the Belize Waste Control (BWC), which has a monopoly on collecting commercial garbage. The reason for the new by-laws, they argue, is that some businesses, in trying to avoid paying BWC, have their garbage dumped on the very streets of the City. The by-laws force businesses to instead pay to City Hall, which will in turn pay BWC. If businesses don’t pay, they face suspension of their trade licenses.
“Now this is not any kind of surplus funds for the City Council; these monies are going to pass through the City Council directly to the contractor,” said Barrow.
“What really disappoints me,” he said, “is the fact that these people can speak out in such a pious self-righteous manner, about anything having to do with garbage collection. Because Mr. Speaker, they are the ones that in every single municipality imposed the most onerous, outrageous garbage collection contracts by way of sweetheart deals with their party insiders.”
According to Barrow, “The central government just had to pay a boatload of money to get out of the one with Cox [out in Cayo], who ran for the Belize City Council, who is a known PUP insider, and who was given some 16-year, I believe, garbage collection contract by the PUP central government at, as I said, the most outrageous rates imaginable.
“They did the same thing in Orange Walk. Even now, the Orange Walk Town Council is in court with the contractor that they paid these outrageous rates to. And it is replicated all over the place. We just had to get out of the one in Corozal.”
CitCo’s difficulties, said Barrow, were caused by the mess the former PUP Council left City Hall in – a $10 million debt and a pillaged purse.
“It is all over the country that the record of endemic corruption, which affected every municipality, continues to haunt us. So really, these hypocritical bleatings are to be completely dismissed,” Barrow commented.
He added that, “This is a pass-through, it doesn’t impose any burden on the poor people of Belize City. The Belize City Council continues to pay for the collection of the residential garbage …without charging them.”
While the big news coming out of Friday’s House meeting were the DFC bill and the CitCo motion, a few other matters were put on the table: the annual report (2007/2008) of the Statistical Institute of Belize, and the report of Finance and Econ Development Committee on DFC Bill 2008, which had met and discussed the bill on January 12, 2009, was tabled with fine-tuning amendments.
Prime Minister Barrow introduced a motion for a loan from OPEC member states, through the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), on concessionary terms.
According to Barrow, GOB has requested assistance for co-financing with the IDB for a solid waste management project, and the funds would help meet the cost of infrastructure works and waste transfer to a regional facility at Mile 24 on the Western Highway.
The lender, OFID, would provide US$3,260,000 for the project, with withdrawals up to the end of June 2013. The loan would be for 20 years, with a grace period of 5 years, and repayments in 30 equal, semiannual payments beginning January 15, 2014. The loan carries an interest rate of 3.5%, and under section 7.2 of Finance and Audit Reform Act, prior authorization from the National Assembly is required for such borrowing, Barrow noted.
Also at today’s House Sitting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Natural Resources, Gaspar Vega, representative for Orange Walk North, tabled the Environment Protection Bill 2009, which, Vega said, would amend current laws to provide for greater environmental control and management of the petroleum industry, establish an environmental management fund, provide for the compounding of offences, and make provisions for a ticketing system for pollution offences.
The Senate meets Tuesday, and among the business of the day will be the DFC bill and the controversial Belize City Council by-laws, which the CitCo hopes to put into effect as early as next week, on February 1.