And going back to today's Senate Meeting - there was a back and forth about the Supplementary Appropriation budget. This approves 14.3 million dollars in government spending above what had already been approved in the budget. 7 million of that is for Belize Infrastructure Limited - mainly for work on the Civic Center - and that drew strong criticism from the opposition:...
Hon. Valerie Woods, Senator, PUP
"On the matter of BIL, my very brief comment is that we were here not so long ago on supplementary bill for BIL (Belize Infrastructure Limited). I joined all colleagues on both sides of this chamber who are asking for more information. Yes, we know that we cannot stop money bills, but we should not, especially in a week following the signing of UNCAC just accept these types of bills where the overruns are as grossly increased. We have absolutely no knowledge of where these expenses are to suggest to look at a field there or a field down south is simply not enough when we're millions of dollars of overruns."
Hon. Paul Thompson, Senator, PUP
"The Belize Infrastructure Limited, Mr. President, is well staffed and well equipped and in fact for those who don't know, the offices of the Belize Infrastructure Limited has just moved from an office here in Belmopan to an office in Belize City. That office is on the 6th floor of the Matalon building. Yes, Mr. President, the owners of that building are the same persons who won the contract to build the 32-million-dollar contract of the city center. I don't know what's going on there, but it doesn't look good, it looks bad. Mr. President, what the government has created at the BIL office is what I call a super architect or maybe in German, it may be an uber architect. This person is now a sports guru, she doesn't need to listen to the sports experts or the end-users. All of a sudden now this person, she knows everything but we know that nobody knows everything. You can just ask the people of San Ignacio about the Falcon Field which projects are included in this 7 million? Who are the contractors?"
Hon Godwin Hulse, Leader of Government Business
"In terms of the contracts, the contractor general approves those and that piece of information is available. I hear this cry but I'm wondering what it is that is requested in terms of your 7 million. I said already, it is the ongoing construction of the civic center, it is the San Ignacio and the Dangriga Stadiums contracts which are clearly available from the contractor general and other areas."
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