Photo: Senate Sitting, Monday, June 19, 2023

Despite concerns raised by social partner senators, the Civil Assets and Unexplained Wealth Bill was passed following a division of vote. All social partner senators voted in favor of the bill.

by Marco Lopez 

BELMOPAN, Mon. June 19, 2023

The Senate met today to pass the bills which came from the House of Representatives on Friday. These legislations, which largely consist of amendments to current laws that are needed to comply with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), were passed. This included the Civil Assets Recovery and Unexplained Wealth Act—legislation that seeks to set up a framework to recover unlawfully attained assets in Belize. Motions to amend loans from CABEI and the Taiwanese government were also brought to the upper house. The first Supplementary Appropriation for this fiscal year of $69 million was also brought from the Senate and passed.

Ministries fumbled budget?

On Friday, the Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño, did not give a clear reason as to why a Supplementary Appropriation was being brought to the House just a few months after the reading of the budget. Senator Hon. Eamon Courtenay in his presentation explained that several new and ongoing projects were not included in this year’s budget, and it was not until those payments made it to the desk of the Financial Secretary that those spending needs were recognized.

This bill is an attempt to correct that, he said, and to allocate $10 million in grant funding that just arrived. Besides this, other unforeseen expenditures were also budgeted for in this allocation.

UDP Senator Michael Peyrefitte remarked that in his view, the funds are either being mismanaged or proper planning is not being done at the CEO level.

“Minister of Human Development – Social Protection … unu budgeted $4 million for it, and in less than three months you need half of that, 2 more million? Boss, unu nuh di budget correct,” Peyrefitte said.  

Senator Hon. Kevin Herrera, the representative for the business community, in his presentation, reminded the Senate that he had pointed out the discrepancies in the funds budgeted for the Ministry of Defence and Border Security in his presentation on this year’s budget. He remarked that he was not surprised that additional funding was needed this early, and warned that we may very well see an additional supplementary shortly.  

“I think that, looking at what we were doing in April, and seeing some of the numbers off, I think we can expect that there will be a number of supplementary, some of those areas where some of the ministries may not have been realistic in terms of the numbers they submitted,” Senator Herrera pointed out.

Senator Hon. Chris Coye commented that, while the Ministry of Finance does not take “wish lists” of budgetary requests from departments, it is important to follow the process and determine what can be afforded and budget according to those expectations.

“There seems to be an approach, and a legacy approach that occurred even under the past administration, of not fully attending to unexpended funds, not providing properly for the revote of those funds in the budget. And I agree, those are concerns of management; the heads of departments, the FOs, need to work more diligently in putting together their budgets, but ultimately, we are responsible,” Coye said, adding that the Ministry of Finance will take responsibility.

He said that they will have to do internal audits of those departments.

This bill was passed in the Senate. 

Division called on Civil Assets Bill; other FATF laws passed 

Senator Peyrefitte, in his presentation of the Civil Assets and Unexplained Wealth bill, criticized two areas of the bill. He questioned the provision which allows for a statute of limitation of 12 years for investigations. While the provision allows that a court order could extend that time to 20 years, Peyrefitte believes that the retroactivity of the law should extend as far back as Independence. He also commented on the standard of proof associated with the seizures of assets, highlighting that a criminal standard of proof should be used within the legislation, which calls for proof beyond a reasonable doubt – and not the civil standard of proof currently within the law, which is based on probability. 

Senator Herrera commented that the bill seems to infringe on some fundamental principles of common law: the presumption of innocence, the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the burden of proof must rest on the accuser. 

Senator Elena Smith highlighted a similar concern: “It comes across as if you the person, you the accused, have to then prove that, what I have is mine. I got it legally, so you cannot say that this is unexplained wealth, or I have something that, based on my salary, for example, I should not [have],” she noted.

Lead Government Business Senator, Eamon Courtenay outlined that the bill is governed by civil law – hence the reason for the standard of proof being used within the law. He shared that in such investigations, a criminal element is not present, and the accused have no need for a presumption of innocence. He shared that the Financial Intelligence Unit is required to show unlawful conduct before exercising its powers under this law. 

In terms of the statute of limitation, Courtenay pointed out that company law in Belize at this time allows corporate entities to purge documents every six years. He said he personally believed that such a period would have been the most adequate statute of limitation within the law, but said that they were advised to use the 12 years instead.

“The Belizean people are sick and tired of seeing gross abuse of people enriching themselves – to the benefit of themselves and to the detriment of the country, and this legislation is designed to attack that problem,” Courtenay said. 

At the end of voting, only the three Opposition senators voted against the bill. It was passed by the Senate. 

Alongside this bill, amendments were also made to the Belize Companies Act, the Financial Intelligence Unit, and the Misuse of Drugs Act. The Insurance and International Insurance Act was repealed, and the International Limited Liability Act was changed to the Limited Liabilities Act. All these were passed, taking the country a step closer to compliance with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force recommendations. 

The Extradition Bill and the Lotteries Amendment Bill were passed with amendments and read a third time.

No motion for Portico’s DA Senate Inquiry

Today, a motion to launch a Senate Inquiry into all the dealings concerning Portico Enterprise Limited’s “Definitive Agreement” was not moved as scheduled. On Friday, the social partner senators had indicated that today, the motion would be out of the Upper House. This motion was never tabled or moved. We note that the senator for the Churches, Hon. Alvin Benguche, was not present at today’s sitting.