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But, while the matter of public spending could be very technical, it is a matter of urgent public interest. 

We’ve put together a few of the major points that the two sides presented today for you to make up your own mind about who’s right and who’s wrong in the way these revenue appropriation bills are handled:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte - Attorney General
"The opposition Senators and members in the house they are just so incompetent and to call a press conference to discuss a matter that was recorded and debated yesterday just reeks of utter desperation on the part of the PUP."

Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"We cannot be faulted by saying that we are attempting to make political mileage of this, they were the ones who brought the bill to the national assembly at this time and they were the ones who set the dates for the hearings and we were doing our job okay? So in terms of timing they are the ones who control timing. You cannot have a hurricane on the 4th of August 2016 and then on the 16th of August 2017 approve 300,000 dollars for cleanup of Belize City; something has to be wrong there. Now if you tell me that the expenditure was incurred way back in 2016 but we missed it and so we are approving it now in 2018 then something is even more wrong."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"What the PUP expect? You have a hurricane and then people need immediate help with their homes, you need BEL to clean up and different bodies to clean up and make the place as it once was. Do we tell the people you know what wait, you cannot get help because we need to go to the house and call a house meeting and then we need to assess how much we need. It would take us about a month or two to come up with that budget so in the meantime no light, no water, no homes, is that what they want? That's not how it works Daniel."

Valerie Woods - PUP Senator
"We were not given any of the details, we are literally just given we were approved 500,000 but mea cupla we spent 19 million instead."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"We don't get any more information on the government side than the social partners or the opposition get. If I get a matter to debate before the Senate and I need information, I go the financial secretary and I do my homework."

Eamon Courtenay
"We believe that what happened in the Senate yesterday was historic because not only was there pointed out that laws were broken but the financial secretary said himself attended the committee and accepted that in fact there has been noncompliance with the finance and audit reform act and there has been noncompliance with the regulations made under that act for financial transparency and responsibility."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"No time during the committee meeting did the financial secretary indicate that the Minister of Finance or any other official was in default or cause the breaking of some law and some violation of the finance and audit act. The PUP talking about violation of the finance and audit act, really? Really?"

Valerie Woods
"In the case of Belize Infrastructure Limited they were approved 500,000 dollars, that's the monies they have to spend in that fiscal year. They got a supplementary of 5 million so they went over by 4.5 million. We still don't know why, we don't know what that was used for. They got another one for 7 million in the same year so it went up to 12 million 500 thousand but by the time that fiscal year was over it went further and the final tallying was over 19 million dollars. So the obvious question raised okay we understand you went over can you tell us why?"

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"When you hand the opposition 3 pages they don't read it, you think we're going to hand them 300 pages so they don't read it? Listen to me if you and you buy a bread and you tell the baker give me a bread and you tell the baker how much pound of flour you use, how much yeast you use, how much sugar you use, you go into all of that right away when you are getting the bread? No man, listen if you want that information it's there for you to get it, it’s there for you to get it. We'll be producing thick documents like this every time for what? For what? For no reason, you have the appropriations budget right there. If you want more details you can go and get it. In the debate Senator Salas proved that's how you can do it. He wanted more information on the numbers and we went to the fin sec and he got more information. Why can't the rest of the Senators do that?"

Valerie Woods
"So even if they do provide the explanation, volumes of papers to supplement the evidence of where all of these millions went, it does not excuse or explain the violation of the law though."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"At no time, at no time did the fin sec say procedures were not followed. At no time did he say that.”

The Opposition Senators told us today that they will be taking the Financial Secretary up on his offer, and they will write him requesting that he provide full details of the public spending related to yesterday’s Supplementary Revenue Appropriations Bill that was passed.