And so the Petrocaribe Loan Motion has now passed the House of Representatives. It still faces a challenge in the Supreme Court, but for now, the House has approved 114 million US dollars loaned to Belize from Alba Petrocaribe Belize Energy Limited between 2012 and 2014.
But, that figure is going up every month - and it varies depending on the world price of fuel and the rate of local consumption. That makes it unusual - because it increases monthly - but Government can't ask for House approval in advance, because no one knows what the figure will be on a month to month basis.
The Prime Minister discussed this today:...
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Now I earlier indicated that I had brought this motion to the House after I asked a public question by Channel 7's Jules Vasquez and it was a question that fairly arose as to why I hadn't done so before. Well the requirements of our Finance and Audit Act mandate parliamentary approval for any GOB borrowing that's upwards of 10 million dollars. But this Petrocaribe arrangement is and must have become clear from my description a strange creature, almost what the lawyers called sui generis, peculiar unto itself. It is then no straight forward loan from a bank or other financial institution with a known principal amount borrowed for a fix period at a determine rate of interest. As I have set out this purchase of fuel principally on credit is kind of a movable feast. The amount of the finance portion, the sum being borrowed, since we are now putting it in those terms, can never be known beforehand. It clearly depends on the volumes of fuel shipments we received in any given period and the volumes fluctuate from month to month. It also depends on the price we pay and the quantum of that price we retain for ourselves and these also fluctuate in accordance as I've said with the price on the ever volatile global oil market. We thus have had to struggle with exactly how we frame this motion and that what point during the ongoing cycle we come to the House. We clearly can't come before hand since the essential particular, the amount we are borrowing is unknowable until we actually receive it. Do we come at every point during the fiscal year? Once the receipts of the finance portion exceed 10 million dollars? Or do we wait until the end of the fiscal year then pass a validation motion covering the exact figure receive for that year? It is the latter that we are doing now and that is the way we will continue to proceed in the future for as long as this program lasts."
The loan motion next goes to the senate. No date has been set for hearing in the Supreme Court.
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