Hon. Kevin Herrera, Business Senator
Business Senator finds discrepancies in Home Affairs and Defense figures; NTUCB Senator cautions, “2005 can be repeated”
BELMOPAN, Fri. May 30, 2025
Today it was the Senate’s turn to debate the Briceño Administration’s fifth budget, the largest at $1.782 billion. During his contribution to the debate, Lead Opposition Senator Patrick Faber set out to rebut the claims in the lower house that the United Democratic Party (UDP) squandered $500 million of Petrocaribe funds and revenue from an oil bonanza with nothing to show for it. Faber listed the upgraded CIVIC Center and district sporting facilities, as well as the Chetumal Street upgrade as several of the many projects funded with Petrocaribe moneys.
For his part, Business Senator Kevin Herrera described some remarkable achievements of the administration in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, including an increase in revenue of 13% when compared to the previous year. He also listed fiscal discipline in an election year and keeping inflation at around 3%, “given the dynamics of what was happening in the global economy.” But that was the end of his commendation, as he proceeded to reiterate previous concerns about the lack of financial reports for the Office of the Auditor General to audit. Herrera also emphasized the need for the Government to do better when it comes to tax collection, and used land tax as an example where, for decades, there has been no political will to pursue it. Whereas Herrera says they were told Government can collect 60 million dollars annually, only a little over 6 million is being collected. If we had that money, Herrera said, we’d have to borrow less for budgetary support.
Herrera then dug into the actual budget figures, and showed how the numbers for the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Defense are not adding up. He explained that there was an overspend of $13 million in recurrent expenditure in the Ministry of Home Affairs for the previous fiscal year, taking the actual expenditure to $119,00,000; yet, for 2025/2026, the recurrent budget is just $109,000,000, even with almost 400 more employees added. Herrera pointed out that the total budget has gone down from $127 million to $115 million this year. “It doesn’t seem realistic,” said the Senator. Similarly, he noted that while $74 million was budgeted for National Defense the last fiscal year, $93 million was actually spent; and now they are budgeting a lower figure of $81 million “for the same number of persons.”
Whereas the Prime Minister in the wrap-up of the budget debate indicated that his administration had only added 332 people in his first term, Herrera provided figures that show otherwise. He shared that for 2022, the total number of government employees was 13,192; and by 2024, the figure was 14,927. Using an average salary figure of $24,000 per employee, Herrera remarked, “that is saying that in three years, the Government has increased the payroll by $41 million.” (In an extended interview with Amandala today, Public Service Union President Dean Flowers shared that the figure for the almost five years the PUP has been in power is over 3,000 new employees.)
Highlighting more examples of discrepancies in the figures, Herrera looked at the staff number in the 2020 budget which was listed as 16,738 compared to last year’s figure of 14,927. He then stated, “I don’t recall that there was a mass reduction in staff to that extent.”
Herrera concluded his budget presentation affirming, “Without timely audits, those figures are a little more than a phantom. Without the political will to collect what is rightfully owed to the people, we’re not just missing opportunities, we are actively shortchanging our future.”
Hon. Glenfield Dennison, NTUCB Senator
NTUCB senator appeals for GoB to meet public sector’s salary demands
Glenfield Denison, the senator for the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB), aligned himself with all the remarks of the Business Senator regarding the failure in the government’s oversight mechanisms. He stated, “Let’s not forget: audit, audit, audit.” He then used his contribution to the budget debate to appeal to the Government to grant the salary increase demands of the public sector workers. He spoke in simple terms, breaking down the request using specific examples. He shared what would be 3% of the annual salary of different workers in the public service. In the case of a teacher with an Associate Degree, it would be $50.06 compared to the 8.5% that would equal $141.84.
Senator Dennison also called on the Government to grant the requests of the other unions that are making demands of the government, including granting the pension requests by the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority Workers Union and restoring the subvention for the University of Belize as it committed to do while in opposition. He concluded with the affirmation that, “We don’t have a financial problem; we just don’t want to put the money where we need to put it. We just don’t want to collect the money from where we should collect it from. And I will say it: We don’t want to fire the public officers we need to fire because they will run go to the minister to hire them back.” He ended with a resounding warning that “2005 can be repeated.”
The message from NGO Senator Janelle Chanona was that in today’s precarious reality in which we face looming uncertainty, we have to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability in public spending, “and every dollar counts.” She suggested that Belize commission a third-party review to “identify the leakages, the losses, so that we can realize the efficiencies needed.” She also called on all the accountability and transparency entities to indicate if they have the resources necessary to do their work, because they “can’t just exist. They have to move from strength to strength … to make sure that they are in a position to help us identify what is causing Government to hemorrhage and where.” Chanona repeated an estimate she has heard, that corruption costs the public purse a million dollars a day.
A big appeal by Senator Chanona was to the Belizean public. She affirmed that “government is all of us”, and when there are wins by the government, “we can champion and commend”; and likewise, whatever needs to be done better, “that’s on us too.” Whereas Opposition Senator Sheena Pitts told the upper chamber she has an aversion to debt due to a refusal to take risk, Chanona said there is a difference between good debt and bad debt. She called on the public to become more involved in the constructive work of nation building as citizens, and stop considering that once we pay our taxes and come out of the ballot box our work is done. She declared, “I strongly believe what moves the country forward is advancing open government initiatives to ensure that government policies, processes, activities are more transparent, accessible and subject to scrutiny.” She committed that their sector will continue to champion these types of initiatives to strengthen democracy, grow our economy, “and see our tax dollars at work.”
Church Senator, Rev. Louis Wade, Jr. urged the PUP that in the wake of the resounding mandate it received at the polls in March, it executes its Plan Belize number 2 with “vigour and love and respect of the people, and with a humble attitude.” Second terms being often synonymous with “ugly corruption rearing its head,” Senator Wade called on the PUP to “fight the desire for corruption … that you will act in integrity. That you will resist this second term arrogance and entitlement, and that you will instead provide a better way of life for our people.”
Wade congratulated the Administration when he affirmed that “the economic engine is humming” and that “the city [Belmopan] is moving like never before.” It was a reference to the “streets showing a dramatic improvement in the economy”, with many employed and employers having difficulty finding workers. He said residents are no longer leaving Belmopan on weekends as they did before. On the other hand, Wade said there is a problem, and the Government needs to address inflation, because those who are employed “are barely keeping their heads above the water.” Wade told the government that it also contributes to the problem, and used the example of the purchase of the land for the new hospital in Belmopan. He shared that right after the purchase, realtors hiked up their prices in the surrounding area, and revealed he knows this because he had just purchased 11 acres for a drug rehab facility in the area and paid only $100,000. The Government paid $6.9 million for 15 acres.
Meanwhile, just as Minister Julius Espat called on the Asian community to reduce retail prices, Wade questioned if the Government will do the same at the pump. Another point made by Wade is that the promise of free education, free healthcare, etc., is a falsehood, as nothing is free, and Belize cannot afford it because we are not a wealthy nation. He urged everyone to become productive citizens to increase Belize’s economic prosperity.
PUP Senator Christopher Coye, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, made the usual references to how far Belize has come since the PUP came to power in November 2020.
Hon. Eamon Courtenay, Leader of Government Business in
the Senate
In wrapping up the debate, Leader of Government Business, Senator Eamon Courtenay started by referring to “NHI is a hustle” (uttered by Senator Faber) as the “most remarkable statement made in this Honorable Senate today.” His response, sarcastically, was that “230,000 Belizeans are participating in this hustle.” He added, “Senator Faber misrepresented to this Senate that NHI is a hustle because it is being provided by the private sector, and you [PUP Senator Linsford Castillo] proved to him that there are nearly a dozen publicly operated clinics that are conducting NHI.” He then told Faber that NHI is delivering quality healthcare to the Belizean people and it will continue. He also affirmed that Faber ridiculed working Belizeans as being engaged in “part time, low wage, informal jobs.” Referring to the PUP’s wins at the polls in village council elections, Courtenay declared, “You will see, Senator Pitts, how the promises performed in the village council elections. The people will speak, and the people will speak again about our performance and our promises, and we will come back to this Senate, and I will remind you.” Calling Faber, “Mr. Rum, Pibil and Tacos,” Courtenay proclaimed that the UDP has no moral authority to come and speak about Belize’s public debt. Courtenay was about to inform that the spending of the Petrocaribe funds was never audited because the auditors from Venezuela were refused access to the books under the Barrow Administration, when the debate got contentious in the Senate, as Faber stood to make a point of order that he was being maligned. The session went on break due to the back and forth. Courtenay ended his wrap-up with a response to Senator Wade on the matter of free programs for the less fortunate. He acknowledged that it is a debate that must be had.
Senate approves US$13 million loan motion for upgrade of 18 miles of GP Highway
BELMOPAN, Fri. May 30, 2025
At its first working session for fiscal year 2025-2026, the Senate debated a loan motion for US$13 million from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development which provides concessionary financing and technical assistance. The money will fund 47% of the project to upgrade 18 miles or 29 kilometers of the George Price Highway from Belmopan to La Democracia.
As per the loan motion details, the plan is to pave the entire portion of the road with hot mix and increase the carriageway width and shoulders on each side. The project will feature the building of a new bridge at Mount Pleasant Creek, and the rehabilitation of the Beaver Dam Bridge as well as new culverts, 16 new bus lanes, safety provisions and new signage.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Lead Opposition Senator
Lead Opposition Senator Patrick Faber, on imploring the Government to stop “borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow” for at least the rest of this year and 2026, questioned, “Can we come to the National Assembly for once and not have a loan motion?” He noted that despite the renegotiations done by the Briceño administration which reduced our debt by close to $800 million, our public debt now stands at $4.4 billion, whereas the figure was at $4.64 billion (including the Superbond) at the end of the last Barrow Administration. Faber says the PUP has borrowed almost $500 million in its first term.
PUP Senator Christopher Coye countered that in 12 years, the UDP doubled the debt from $2.2 billion spending $200 million annually.