Senate Debates Loan Deferrals and Auditor General Appointment Amid Opposition Criticism

On Friday, we told you of the more than 12 loan motions that were taken to the House of Representatives.  Today, those motions along with several bills were debated in the Senate where two issues dominated the discourse, namely, the appointment of the Auditor General and the deferral of ten loans with the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan).  Lead Senator for the United Democratic Party, Michael Peyrefitte rose to condemn the motions and presented an analogy of a thirsty man and a desperation for water.  

Michael Peyrefitte, Senator: “Madam President you know how this government operates ? This government operates like this; you come to me, you’re at my mercy and you ask me for a glass of water and I go and I pour the water, this is what this government does, pour the water and walking back to you so you could see I spit in the water. And when I give it to you you say “as thirsty as I am, I’m not drinking that. You spat in that.” And their response would be “Oh you see you’re not really thirsty. You don’t really want any water.” But the problem they don’t realize that when you poison something it doesn’t matter what you try to slip in there because you see when we object to this Senator Courtney will get up and say “listen to what the UDP I objecting to they don’t want women to get scholarships, and they don’t want women to be trained. They’re against women blah blah blah.” You could jump all you want because you know what you say this but none of it will happen. None of it will happen. All that scholarship thing, how much money are you putting towards that ? Technical capacity building, you will not do it. You have never done it. You don’t have a history of doing it even your new growth minister is saying you haven’t done it. So you come now, the end of your term and ask us to approve a hundred and odd million dollars and say just trust us ? We will defer this and create finance and what we will do with it just trust us man. Just trust us. You don’t have the track record to be trusted. Can’t support no loan at this point.”

Senator Kevin Herrera, representative for the private sector, has expressed concerns over the loan interest that these deferrals would cost taxpayers.  According to Senator Herrera, he understands the need for cash flow, and expressed hope that the government would utilize the funds wisely.

Kevin Herrera, Senator, Business Community: “The request for a moratorium is being made again through these motions. I just want to go over the numbers just briefly, Madam President. The total amount of the loans are $130.2 million or $260.4 million Belize dollars. That’s basically what we’re asking the moratorium on. For three years, that would save us, or every year that will save us $14.4 million US dollars or $43.2 million US dollars every three years. So in the three years, that’s basically what we would save in terms of principal payments. So we’re talking about that as cash flow. We have $43.2 million US dollars or $86.4 million Belize dollars more to spend over the 3 years. That’s cash flow. Again that is important from a financial management standpoint because sometimes you need your cash. It’s costing the country $42 million Belize dollars over the 6 years and that is because we’re paying 6 years interest more for each of these loans. That’s the cost of it. And so I think that in debating these motions, I think that type of information is important that the public understands. Now, again, you know governments need cash flow for all types of issues and projects. I’m just not seeing the big need given where we are post-COVID. three, four years after. And so hopefully we get an explanation in that regard.”

The top financial expert in the Briceno Administration, Senator Chris Coye, after hearing all concerns, rose in an attempt to allay them.  He noted that the numbers are there to be analyzed and that there is no financial troubles in the government as is being alluded to by the opposition.

Christopher Coye, Government Senator: “The numbers are there for people to see. Look at the debt, the debt of this government. You know the figures. You just don’t want to speak to the figures because you know what the reality is. And the reality now is far better than what the reality was four or five years ago. The external debt under the UDP up to 2020 was $2.9 billion. The external debt today is still less than that $2.9 billion. So you could go about talking about this loan and that loan and that loan, but you know what? The external debt is actually less now four years later than it was in 2020. Four years later, we have not increased the debt load of this government. We have reduced the debt load of this government. Again, I’m sorry to say, I mean, you kind of misunderstand what’s the difference between borrowing and dispersing. It’s still not debt. It’s not debt until it’s dispersed. So, Senator Herrera spoke about the virtues and the concerns in respect of these amendment, these loan amendment motions. And yes, Senator Herrera is correct that there will be cash flow relief and this is part of your fiscal management, the cash flow relief that is generated. You want to use the relief created to invest in areas that will generate a return that will more than cover the relief or the opportunity cost of generating that relief. And that is what this government has been and will continue to be about. These are long-term investments. When we look at education in particular, I think nobody can deny the effort of this administration to invest in education. Free education is being rolled out throughout this entire country. The rate of return on that investment is the best rate of return that you can possibly get. Any public investment you can get. But it takes 30 years worth of that investment to see the full return in that investment. That is to come.”

Aside from the ten loan motions involving Taiwan, there were also six other loan motions. Those include the 58 point two million US dollar loan for the Belize Reliant and Resilient Energy System Project; the 23 point five million US dollars for the Belize Blue Cities and Beyond Project; the 17 point five million US dollars for the Expansion and Rehabilitation of the Philip Goldson Highway; and the six point two million dollars from the Caribbean Development Bank on behalf of the Belize Electricity Limited.