_{Photo: Senator Denfield Dennison}

by William Ysaguirre

BELMOPAN, Mon. Nov. 11, 2024

The Senate debated and approved the first Supplementary Appropriations Bill of $106 Million for this fiscal year; passed two new Bills into law; approved amendments to three existing laws after their third readings; and introduced a motion to hire an interim Auditor General on a four month contract, notwithstanding objections raised by the Opposition UDP Senators and the Senators representing the workers’ unions and the private sector, at a Special Sitting at the George Price Center in Belmopan on Monday, November 11.

The Movable Property Security Rights Bill is intended to allow small, micro and medium enterprises easier access to finances to grow their business by enabling them to use their movable assets and equipment as collateral for loans to invest, according to the Prime Minister when he introduced the Bill in September. However, Senator Hon. Denfield Dennison was skeptical of the true intent of the Bill, arguing that it may create loopholes in the law for unscrupulous individuals to register movable items of questionable provenance as assets.

The Senate passed amendments to the Customs and Excise Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act, and the Criminal Records Rehabilitation Act to repeal the expungement of convictions for first time criminal offenders, to close a loophole in the law which was being exploited by repeat offenders.

_{Photo: Senator Michael Peyrefitte}

The Senate also approved a Finance Belize Recognition Bill, and the Global Fund Privileges and Immunities Bill, which drew derision from the Opposition Senator, Hon. Michael Peyrefitte. He challenged that the Privileges and Immunities Bill would create a group of people who would be above the law. He also suggested, concerning the bill to create a non-profit private organization to promote investment in Belize, that in effect it would be duplicating the function of BELTRAIDE and other departments of the Ministries of Foreign Trade and Finance, and thus was not really needed.

Peyrefitte dissected the Supplementary Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, which he said seemed to betray a lack of proper budgetary planning by the government when it first presented its budget for this fiscal year in March. Senator Peyrefitte noted that the Supplementary budget was almost 10 percent of what was approved in March, that the Ministry of Finance budgeted $4.5 million in March for the entire year, and has now come back to request an additional $6.1 million to finance operations for the next four months left in the fiscal year. The Office of the Prime Minister had budgeted for $1.9 million in March for the entire year, but is now requesting $.2 million more. The Ministry of Immigration had budgeted for $750,000 for the year, but is now requesting $1.9 million more. The Constitutional Review Project began the year with a $500,000 budget, but is now requesting $500,000 more. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security had budgeted $220,000 for the entire year, but is now requesting $3.2 million for the remaining four months. Land Acquisitions had been budgeted at $21 million, but now the government is requesting an additional $9 million to pay for acquisitions. The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Climate Change had begun the fiscal year with a budget of $534,000, but is now requesting $961,000 more for the remaining four months.

The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing had budgeted $5.1 million under Cap. II for this year, but now is requesting $13.7 million more. In March, MIDH had only budgeted $127,000 to pave the San Estevan road, when it is well recognized that it costs $1 million per mile to build a good road. Now MIDH is asking for $3 million more for the project.

Similarly, the Ministry of Rural Transformation and Community Development began the year with a budget of $200,000, but is now requesting $8.4 million more! Some $3.0 million was budgeted for Groceries and Food Assistance to the needy, but now an additional $2.5 million has been requested. One million dollars was budgeted for capital subscriptions to international financial institutions, but now the government is asking for $2.02 million more for these payments. Peyrefitte suggested that all these adjustments betray a lack of proper planning and would seem to indicate that the Prime Minister, who is also the Minister of Finance, does not know how to manage finances.

_{Photo: Seantor Mark O’Brien}

Senator Hon. Mark O’Brien also questioned the lack of planning evidenced by the request for a supplementary $106 million to the government’s budget for this year, that $43 million was budgeted for Cap. II projects but now needs another $55 million. He asked the government senators to explain the reason for the unexpected spending spree, and said it demonstrates poor, poor planning.

_{Photo: Senator Chris Coye}

Managing the country’s debt has always been a top priority for the New PUP government since it took office, Minister of State for Finance, Senator Hon. Chris Coye argued, and the government’s prudent fiscal management has brought down the ratio of debt to Gross Domestic Product, and these policies have achieved a fiscal surplus. Some $20 million of the supplementary budget is money from grants, from Taiwan and other international funding agencies. He explained that the appropriations bill was, in effect, the government asking the people’s permission to spend this money, but this is only an estimate and not what will actually be spent. Often as not, the ministries do not spend the full amount approved in the budget.

By comparison with previous supplementary budgets, in 2020-21 the supplementary was 13 percent of the budget. In 2021-22 it was 16.5 percent of the budget, in 2022-23 it was 17.8 percent, in 2023-24 the supplementary was only 10 percent of the March budget, and this year is the smallest supplementary, only 6.6 percent of the original March budget.

The investments in infrastructure and roads have become necessary as a result of recent but unexpected weather events, Coye explained, something no one could have foreseen. The increase in agricultural spending is for fertilizer to support the citrus and sugar cane industries, and a $1 million is needed to fight the new threat of New World Screwworm, which poses a serious danger to the cattle industry. This pest is already detected in Guatemala, and the threat alone is endangering Belize’s export market for cattle to Mexico.

Belize buys catastrophe insurance against natural disasters, but with the increase in violent storms, the increased risk has driven up the insurance premiums. So, the government has to pay more to the financial institutions that offer this risk insurance. Payments for land acquisitions are also to settle court judgments of past land acquisitions of past administrations, even before the past UDP administration.