Last night at around 8:00, after almost 12 hours of budget debate, Prime Minister Dean Barrow wound it up with his response. At the beginning of his presentation, the Prime Minister proposed to the House that the standing orders be amended to limit the speeches from each member to an hour maximum. He freely conceded that his colleagues from both sides have a pattern of being long-winded. He then gave his 27-minute rebuttal of all the arguments that the Opposition made his "stability" budget. Here's a snapshot of what he had to say to his critics:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I wish to thank all for their contribution and single out of course the public officers including those at the Ministry of Finance."
"Now among the half-truths, untruths, falsifications and misrepresentations from the Opposition, one stood out. That was the charge that the Petrocaribe projects being implemented by BIL, had contracts awarded on the basis of cronyism. Mr. Speaker, that's why we put representatives of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize and the Chamber of Commerce on the BIL board of directors, to make absolutely sure of transparency, to guard completely against any possibility of HP as your station called it "hanky panky." And those representatives will tell you that all these contracts were awarded on the basis of fair and open bidding. You talk about the civic center? The outfit that won, went up against Kee Chanona from Trinidad and Tobago. First class regional reputation and the local outfit that won which is a partnership, came in some 6 million dollars under Kee Chanona. Thats why they won the contract and as you can see work has already started and is proceeding apace."
"But Mr. Speaker, Petrocaribe, BIL, the government's fantastic public works program, this has so upended those on the other side, that they're going bunkers. To the extent now where they will indict the social partners. Because if hanky panky there was, the social partners would have had to be a part of it."
"The Leader of the Opposition had in seeking to manipulate things, had the effrontery, the nerve, the gall, to talk about debt and to say by way of complaint that the debt to GDP ratio under the UDP is now almost 80%. Neglecting to say that when they left office it was 92%. We took it now, going up again, but going up again Mr. Speaker because of the borrowings from Petrocaribe. I hope the 3 economists in the House will perhaps invite him for some sort of a private session and explain to him the simple fact that if you can borrow on concessionary terms, if you can borrow on super concessionary terms - I don't know of any other arrangement, any other international facility where you can get 1% money over 25 years. I cited for them one time an article in the Financial Times that made the point borrowing in those terms is almost like a gift. So while in terms of the statistics it does take up your debt to GDP ratio. If I could continue to borrow like that forever, I would borrow like that forever. So please Mr. Leader of the Opposition, you really need to be extremely careful when you talk about debt and debt under the UDP in an accusatory manner. Don't talk to us about debt sir. Don't talk to us about debt. You invite us to pour scorn on you."
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