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When will the House of Representatives vote on that 90 million dollar arbitration award that is owed to the Belize Bank?  Rumours said it would be the third Friday in February - but today the Prime Minister said - the date is still undecided since the Bank is trying to find another way to force government to pay:…

Jules Vasquez
"Will that pivotal house meeting be held on February 16th sir?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"I'm not entirely sure because as you may have known the Ashcroft Alliance, the Belize Bank they've filed an application for an enforcement order. The hearing of that has now been fixed for March 14th. The government also filed two applications. In that same application the government is saying in any event how can the bank ask for an enforcement order and an order of mandamus against the Minister of Finance when it is quite clear that our constitutional arrangements as well as the provisions of the finance and audit act proscribe, prevent any kind of payment or a judgement debt that is not already provided for by way of the annual appropriations act; prevent payment except parliament votes the money. We are taking advice from the lawyers representing us as to whether in terms of the date having now been fixed for the hearing of all those applications and in particular that last one, we still ought to proceed with the vote on the 16th of February. As soon as we have clear from our lawyers what their advice is, what their recommendation is and that would have been discussed in cabinet, we'll indicate to the public what the position is.”

Government’s applications before the court also deal with the rate of interest being applied. GOB’s attorneys argue that it should be 6% not 17%.