PETROCARIBE—UDP HYPOCRISY By Hon Francis Fonseca On September 6, 2005 in Jamaica the PetroCaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement was signed by several Caricom Nations including Belize. And on June 9, 2006 Belize entered into a Joint Venture agreement with Venezuela forming ALBA Petro Caribe Belize Ltd. These were initiatives of the then PUP Administration of PM Said Musa. Our Party therefore values and appreciates the benefits of the PetroCaribe Program to our nation and economy. That value and appreciation is, however, not unconditional and unqualified. Our support for the program must be balanced alongside our duties and obligations to the Belizean people and our commitment to strengthening the systems of Governance in our country. The Loan Motion before the House of Representatives seeks to have the House “confirm and validate” a loan agreement entered into between the Government and Alba Petro Caribe Belize Energy Limited (APBEL) in September 2012 pursuant to which the Government has drawn down and apparently spent some BZ$230 Million Dollars over the period September 2012 through October 2014. The confirmation and validation of the loan is expressly sought by the terms of the Motion from the House pursuant to section 7(2) of the Finance and Audit Reform Act, 2005. When $230M is borrowed, even under a concessionary program, in the name of the Belizean people and there is no legal and proper authorization for such borrowing, and no proper accounting of those monies, the PUP has an obligation to not only ask questions, but to act to demand answers. When the line between the PetroCaribe Funds and the UDP coffers is blurred we in the PUP have a responsibility to question and challenge the use of those funds. When contracts given out under the PetroCaribe program are given to cronies and hustlers of the UDP and the Belizean people do not get value for money, the PUP has a big problem with that and so do the Belizean people. Our Party has therefore authorized the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), DPL Julius Espat to file a Legal Claim in the Supreme Court of Belize to get answers for the Belizean people, to demand accountability for them, to seek to ensure that any future Government of Belize, whether PUP or UDP, understands that going forward the Belizean people expect and require that we do things differently and in strict accordance with our financial orders and regulations. $230M is no small change. A quarter of a Billion Dollars. The Chairman of the PAC and our Party has an obligation to pursue every option on behalf of the Belizean people. This legal claim is therefore NOT an attack on development as the UDP apologists would like you to believe, it is a Legal Claim on behalf of the Belizean people to stop the abuse and misuse of public funds. It is about putting a stop to waste and corruption. It is about the accountability of all future Governments of Belize.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:46:05 +0000
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