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The PUP has filed suit against the Barrow Administration – seeking to block government from spending anymore of the Petrocaribe money.  As we’ve been reporting, Julius Espat, the representative for Cayo South and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has challenged the Petrocaribe Loan Motion ever since it went to the House of Representatives.  Espat says it is too late to ask the House’s approval for 114 million US dollars – since the money has already been borrowed and much of it spent. 

The Auditor General didn’t buy his argument – so Espat has filed a law suit in the Supreme Court.  It names Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow, the Attorney General, and the local company for Petrocaribe, ALBA PETRO CARIBE (BELIZE ENERGY) LIMITED. They are asking the court for an injunction restraining the Minister of Finance Barrow from paying the Petrocaribe loan out of the public purse, and an injunction restraining Barrow from spending any of the Petrocaribe money.  The PUP says it violates the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act and the Belize Constitution.

They say that no accounting of the loan has been presented to or approved by the House and nor has there been any debate as to the purposes for which the funds are to be expended.Twenty minutes ago, the government issued a press release saying the lawsuit is an abuse of the process of the court. The release calls it, quote, “an unpatriotic attempt to play politics with a breakthrough program that is of vital national financial and developmental importance, (and) in truth has nothing to do with the law.â€￾

The release goes unto argue whether it is a loan at all but instead a quote, “special commercial and diplomatic arrangement. â€￾

Government says it keeps the public informed and accounts to its Venezuelan partners about the manner in which Petrocaribe monies are spent.
And so, Government says it will resist with every resource quote, “this legal fig leaf being employed by a party on the wrong side of history.â€￾

So, all that means, the matter which is  now before the house will also go to court.