NOTES ON THE BUDGET 2013-14 By Rt Hon Said Musa

Mr. Speaker: A debate on the budget is an opportune time to review the state of the Belizean economy and the state we are in as a country 31 years after we achieved political independence as a nation. The Barrow Administration came into office in 2008 with great promise. They promised a 6% annual growth after inheriting an economy that had more than doubled to $2.5 billion dollars in goods and services under the PUP government (1998-2008). During the PUP years, the annual average growth rate was 5%. their five years is 2.6%. You see Mr. Speaker instead of building on the hard earned primary surplus in the budget left by the PUP, with a fiscal deficit of less than 1%, they proceeded to squander the accumulated debt service savings secured by the PUP in the first debt restructuring. The total net cash flow relief secured by the PUP administration was US$481.5 million for the period 2007-2015 of which $180 million in immediate savings in debt service benefitted the UDP Government when they assumed office in 2008. Instead of investing these savings in projects that would increase production, grow the economy and create jobs for our people, they squandered on wasteful spending and feathering the nests of family members and their cronies. Even if we take account of the 5% GDP growth in 2012 claimed by the Prime Minister, the average growth rate for

As a result from 2009 to the present the Prime Minister has never been able to balance his budget. There has been a fiscal deficit every year and a financing gap ranging from $151 million in 2009 to 139.8 million last year 2012. Now despite his hollow boast of a 5% growth last year he presents a budget for 2013/14 with another gaping hole of $127.1 million dollars. Is this onward and upward? Or is it backward and downward? I cite these numbers as an example of the phony rhetoric that permeated throughout the budget presentation made by the Prime Minister on March 1, 2013. He speaks of adroit stewardship and his unshakeable commitment to the welfare of the nation. But the reality in Belize today is that the masses of the Belizean people are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty. The cost of living keeps going up higher and higher. The grocery bill, the light bill, the water bill, the rent, the mortgage payment, the school fees, the medical expenses all have become a heavy burden which the bottom half of the population mired in poverty and misery are finding it increasingly difficult if not impossible to bear. The unemployment rate went up to a staggering 24%. When the PUP left office it was 8%. According to the statistics gleaned from the Statistical Institute of Belize, close to 30,000 young Belizeans, many of them high school and Sixth Form graduates, cannot find a job. upward? Or is it backward and downward? Is this onward and

The salaries and wages of public officers, teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers and BDF soldiers and pensions have been frozen for the past 5 years. (There were three annual salary increases of 8% for junior officers and 5% for senior officers provided during the PUP administration). As for the hollow mantra of no new taxes, the Prime Minister would want us to forget the massive tax increase that they imposed on imported fuel. Remember the $1.00 per gallon additional tax on gasoline and diesel. Remember what he said, he will keep the price of diesel below $6.00 and gasoline below $7.00. $30 million in additional fuel tax on the backs of the people every year. The price of gasoline shot up to over $12.00 a gallon. Premium gas is now $12.20 and diesel $10.71. Then there was the increase in Business Tax on the supply of electricity from 1.75% to 6.5% to raise an additional $10 million from B.E.L. (when it was privately owned). As soon as the Government took over B.E.L. they reverted back to the 1.75% tax. The Belizean people were promised light bills would go down with nationalization. But as a New Years gift for 2013 the Government owned B.E.L. slapped on an additional 17% increase. The PUC proposed that the Government should pay part of the increase on street lighting. But the pro-poor UDP Government said let the people pay for it. Then there was the whopping 25% increase on the GST from 10% to 12.5% to raise an additional $42 million on the goods and services the people must pay for. Then there was the levy of 5% on the value of goods and services imported into an Export Processing Zone.

It is a cruel slap in the face of the people to boast: trebled.

no new taxes,

when property tax and trade licenses have been jacked up, doubled, even

Even the cost of burial has escalated with the City Council becoming grave-diggers. Is this onward and upward? Or is it backward and downward? While they pat themselves on the back for the growth in tourist arrivals, the official figures for earnings from tourism are not so impressive. The actual tourism inflows was only $215 million. Compare that to the last year of the PUP Administration in 2007 when the Tourism inflows was $289 million - $74 million more in earnings in 2007 (according to the figures in Annex 1 Select Indicator put out by the Ministry of Finance, Statistical Institute of Belize and the Central Bank of Belize). Is this onward and upward? Or is it backward and downward? In short, the budget performance of the Government is dismal and shockingly deceptive. growing poverty. If there was a real 5% growth in the economy, why is it that the teachers and public officers cannot get their salary adjustment? If there was a real growth in the economy, how come business houses continue to retrench; the bank foreclosures continue; more people lose their jobs. The Prime Minister tries desperately with his fancy In reality there is rhetoric to create an impression of growing prosperity.

If there was real growth in the economy, how come the employers and workers Social Security money had to be used to the tune of $50 million to prop up the government owned B.T.L.? The truth is that there was growth in the size of the bureaucracy, growth in the perks and benefits to the political elite in the ruling party, their legal advisors, their family members and select cronies. Like the $14.9 million paid out for legal fees and professional services to the privileged ones. Another $14.6 million paid to the over 300 high paid Contract Officers but for the vast majority of Belizeans the growth and prosperity was artificial. It is not our border that is artificial. It is the inflated figures in the

budget presentation. There is nothing artificial about border from the Hondo to the Sarstoon. Nothing artificial about the border monuments at Gracias a Dios at Garbutts Falls and Aguas Turbias. What is artificial is the lot of hot air spewing out of the mouth of the Foreign Minister. What is hypocritical artifice is when they try to deify the late Philip Goldson and didnt even have the decency to pay for his funeral. It was the PUP that honoured him posthumously and the Hon. Max Samuels who paid for the bricking of his grave. They did not even want to pay the sculptor for the Goldson bust which was knocking around from pillar to post for years.

Thats the difference between the PUP, a party that practices meritocracy, care and concern for all Belizeans and the UDP a party whose leadership practices rampant nepotism for family and friends and blatant victimization and demonization of political opponents. Even in his budget presentation which should be a serious discourse on the countrys finances and the state of the economy, the Prime Minister with his boorish arrogance could not resist his inherent proclivity to be nasty describing the opposition members as having a vermin-like behavior and equating our souls to excrement. Mr. Speaker if it is not unparliamentary language forbidden under our Standing Orders to describe members as shit in this Honourable House, then I fear our National Assembly will have become a cess-pool of vulgarity at the instance of this Prime Minister. CRIME I turn now Mr. Speaker to what is perhaps the single most disturbing challenge facing our nation. Crime and violence threaten the welfare of our citizens everywhere, no more so than in Belize City. Crime generates a climate of fear and diminishes the nations growth and development. Violence breeds violence and the social and political instability resulting can and do lead to economic collapse and a failed state. I find it distressing that in a budget presentation of 39 pages mostly esoteric rhetoric, the Prime Minister could only devote two short paragraphs; 5 sentences to this issue what he calls citizens security. He says: we will continue to fight the scourge of crime, which despite our best efforts, casts its increasingly low shadow over our entire society, but especially over urban youth.

This increasingly long shadow Mr. Prime Minister, falls on the hundreds of grieving parents who have lost their sons to gun violence. It is a long shadow which has branded our country of Belize with one of the highest murder rates, per capita, in the entire region. Over 140 murders in 2012. In less than 3 months this year we already have a reported 24 murders. Few of the murders are solved; few of those accused of murder are convicted. The Prison system is disproportionately filled with persons on remand or persons convicted of drug-related offences. The majority of prisoners are male and well under 30. They are young men and a few young women who have failed at school or have been failed by school. They are mostly poor and they have weak family links. The entire Justice System is in crisis said the learned Chief Justice at the recent opening of the Supreme Court. So what is the Governments response to this disastrous state of affairs? Last year in 2012 the Ministry of National Securitys Police Recurrent budget was cut by over $8 million dollars. Even the Patrol Branch in Belize City was cut by $600,000.00. The Prosecution Branch by $500,000.00. The Police Training School cut by $1 million. Scenes of Crime Unit by over $230,000.00. The Crime Intelligence Unit by over $260,000.00. Community Policing by $350,000.00.

The BDF which has been mandated not only to patrol and protect our borders but also to assist the police in crime prevention and detection their budget was cut by over $2.5 million.

The Capital II Budget was also cut in 2012 by some $2.5 million. Intelligence gathering was cut by over $250,000.00. Capital Improvements to police stations cut by $750,000.00 no improvements - the entire budget cut.

Purchase of equipment for the police cut by $400,000.00. Even police building maintenance was cut out.

The Forensic Lab & equipment budget was cut from $300,000.00 to $58,000.00.

PUBLIC DEBT The Prime Minister has spent the last several months blowing his tuba about the debt restructuring that his government has carried out. With all the umpa, umpa gushing from that baritone tuba, you would think Mr. Speaker that the government has solved all our debt problems with what the Prime Minister in a fit of hubris called a Houdini-like performance. The last time he compared himself to the Greek mythological demi-God A Prometheus Unbound back in 2008 who would go for broke we all remember what happened. deep hole of recession. The Barrow administration drove Belize into a

Now in 2013 the dear Prime Minister is once again fantasizing as an Olympic champion taking a victory lap with laurels and garlands much in evidence. But it is time for a reality check. At the end of 2007/early 2008 when the UDP took over, the outstanding external debt was US$972.5 or BZ$1.945 billion and the domestic debt was $321 million for a total of BZ$2.266 billion. Now in 2013 even after the so-called superbond has been

restructured, the outstanding external debt according to page 29 of the Prime Ministers budget presentation is US$1.018 or BZ$2.036 billion and the domestic debt is BZ$417 million for a total of BZ$2.453 billion. So despite all the hoopla. Despite all the umpa after 5 years of UDP mismanagement, corruption and incompetence, we have sunk deeper into debt of $2.4 billion. Some $200 million deeper in debt. If only they had continued on the path of reform growth and development, Belize would not be in the terrible mess that we are today. When the people gave them the mandate to govern in 2008, these UDP leaders had one thing in mind: They run things. They forgot all their lofty promises to the people. They set out to crush the PUP and to erase all the accomplishments of the PUP years in government.

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MAJOR ADVANCES IN DEVELOPMENT And no matter how often they try to vilify and demonize us, the major advances we made in transforming and modernizing the economy of Belize stand indelibly part of the historic record. The Prime Minister can fulminate as much as he wants that we the PUP have nothing to show. Tell that to the over 50,000 Belizean mothers and their families who benefitted from free affordable quality health care under the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme instituted by the PUP on the South side of Belize City and extended to the southern districts Stann Creek and Toledo.

Tell them why as soon as the UDP came into office you started dismantling this great health programme for the poor families who can least afford to pay the ever increasing cost of medical care.

Tell them why you have suspended the programme when by now it should have been extend to the entire country. Nothing to Show he says: Tell that to the thousands of Belizeans who live in villages and rural communities who benefitted from the massive expansion of clean drinking water systems piped into their communities. Tell that to the thousands of households and small farmers who were grateful to receive electricity for the first time in their remote communities. Nothing to Show he says!

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Tell that to the hundreds of low and middle income Belizean families who for the first time were able to move into their nice two and three bedroom ferro-concrete homes right across the country thanks to the PUP government. The construction boom that took place was unprecedented.

New subdivisions at Belama, West Landivar, Vista del Mar, Mile 8 on the Western highway, Fresh Pond at Burrell Boom, Los Lagos and Maxboro on the Northern Highway, Picini, Cohune Walk and many new housing development sin Belmopan, hundreds of working poor families moving into their new homes at Ladyville, Lords Bank, Hattieville and Mahogany Heights, San Pablo in Ambergris Caye where over 200 houses were constructed following the devastation in San Pedro by Hurricane Keith; San Lorenzo in Orange Walk Town, Bouganvilla Park in San Ignacio; the housing boom was spread in all districts, now in the Valley communities along the Hummingbird highway, in Punta Gorda, in Independence Village, in Placencia and Seine Bight. And for those Southside Belize City representatives whose vision is confined to Belize City; are they so politically blind as not to see the many new homes that were built by the PUP at Yarborough in the Albert Division, in Lake Independence and Collet extension areas, in the Fabers Road area of Port Loyola. Yet they try to fool the people by repeating the lie over and over nothing to show for it! The investment in these housing developments with land reclamation, streets and playgrounds, with electricity and water systems was over $110 million dollars.

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In addition over $400 million in loan financing was provided to farmers, fishermen, entrepreneurs, homeowners, hoteliers, in the tourism sector, for students in Junior College and pursuing university education. Nothing to show for it? Tell that to the Belizean doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists and artists, the cadre of professionals who are pursuing their careers and contributing to the development of Belize. Thanks to the help they received to pursue university training under a PUP Government. The numbers speak for themselves. With the construction boom and the investments we made to develop the agriculture sector in diversified activities such as papaya production, shrimp farms, tilapia industry at La Democracia, cacao production in Toledo, in the infrastructure investment in the Tourism sector especially in San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Placencia and the Cayo District, thousands of new jobs were generated in small and medium sized enterprises. The unemployment rate was brought down to 8%. After 5 years of the UDP, the jobless situation is a time bomb waiting to explode over 23%. The Barrow Administration with its misguided philosophy of big government wanting to own or control every facet of economic activity IN Belize has depressed and squeezed out the private sector. The inevitable result is mass firing of workers, foreclosures and down-sizing. So the public sector continues to grow with the hiring of crony contract officers and the paying of salaries to gang members paying them not to work but as ransom money to hold it down. The teachers cant get a salary adjustment, says the Minister of Education. But his government can pay $3 million in the name of so-called gang truce.

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Nothing to Show shouted the member for Collet! He cannot even give grudging recognition to the major transformation that took place in education under the PUP. 1,500 new classrooms built, new high schools built, many more expanded. New Sixth Forms at Wesley College and Escuela Mexico. The University of Belize with a modern campus in Belmopan inaugurated. Upgraded facilities for UB all the way down to Punta Gorda Toledo. State of the Art Technical and Vocational Institutions (now called ITVET) established in all six districts of Belize. University. Instead of building on this great achievement in education, the loudmouth Minister of Education instead of giving credit where it is due to the former Minister of Education the leader of the Opposition, spends his time preening like a peacock while UB is in crisis. He cuts the subsidies and the students are burdened with higher fees. The ITVET facilities are underutilized and the number of school drop-outs continue to rise. I could go on to talk about many other great accomplishments to debunk the myth, the lie perpetuated by that those on the other side that we have nothing to show. I could talk about the great revival the renaissance in culture and the arts initiated by the PUP with the establishment of the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH), the building of the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Belize, the House of Culture in Belize City, Orange Walk Town (Banquitas) in Corozal Town, in Dangriga (Gulisi) in Benque Viejo del Carmen. The teaching of Maya and African history in our schools, the massive upgrade to the various Maya temples, visitors centres and access roads. Hundreds of scholarships given for deserving students to attend Sixth Form and

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I could talk about the major infrastructural development that took place. The new Border Management Facilities at the Northern and Western borders. The paving of the Southern highway. The new bridges on the Hummingbird highway at Caves Branch, Sibun and Silver Creek. Bridges in Toledo at the Moho River, the Jordan bridge; in the Cayo district the Agripino Cawich bridge to the Valley of Peace, the Beaver Dam bridge on the Western highway. The Orange Walk By Pass, the Burrell Boom Hattieville By Pass. The Caye Caulker and the Placencia airstrips upgrade. The expansion at the Philip Goldson International Airport runway. Much was achieved Mr. Speaker but there is no gain saying that much more remains to be done. But for this Prime Minister and this UDP Government to pretend that they are the saviors of Belize and the PUP has nothing to show is to indulge in crass hypocrisy and outright deception; it is the product of self-deluded minds. The Belizean, people particularly those in San Pedro Ambergris, villages on the old Northern highway right up to Corozal, down in Placencia, Independence Village and in the Toledo district who faced the brunt of the devastation wrecked by hurricanes Keith and Iris as well as Tropical Storm Chantal and Hurricane Dean they know of the great work of reconstruction, costing over $400 million in total, carried out by the PUP administration, the great work of restoration and reconstruction done in record time, the institutional investment we made in the National Emergency Management Organization that has stood our country in good stead for many years to come. When they in the ruling party now say we have nothing to show for the monies borrowed, they are spitting in the sky and it is falling back in their faces.

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They have become so arrogant and full of themselves that they believe they can say and do anything and get away with it. intimidate all who oppose them or criticize them. The Mayan leaders are attacked for wanting to be properly consulted about oil drilling in Toledo. The President of the Inter-American Development Bank Mr. Moreno is called a coward by the Prime Minister for refusing to provide a partial guarantee. The rating agencies like Standards & Poors can go to hell. Transparency International can no longer get information about the level of corruption that is taking place in this government. A Minister can burn over half a million dollars worth of valuable rosewood and the rest of the Cabinet laughs it off as an unfortunate mistake. A Minister of State in charge of gangs involved in a gang-like debauchery at a casino in the Free Zone, is charged with aggravated assault of a police officer is granted police bail and given a slap on the wrist by the Prime Minister. Another Minister of State is accused by an irate Belizean living abroad of being conned out of thousands of dollars and he too gets a slap on the wrist. They both continue to sit in this Honourable House with impunity, protected from on high. They threaten and

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The Deputy Prime Minister who by his own admission, abuses his office to convey hundreds of acres of valuable national real estate to various of his family members at gross undervalue. from his party leader the Prime Minister. But he is rewarded by being voted back by his colleagues after getting a ringing endorsement

The Attorney General instead of coming up with any meaningful program or policy to improve the administration of Justice in Belize which is in crisis, chooses instead to engage in a petty vendetta against the Bar Association of Belize.

In all this Mr. Speaker, the rule of law, the Constitution of Belize and the very foundation of a parliamentary democratic system is being undermined. Is it all surprising that the entire justice system is in crisis? The Courts are overburdened with a back log of cases. Yet the budget for the Supreme Court was cut last year by almost 2 million dollars. Magistrates Courts was cut by over a million dollars. The Prosecution Branch is under-resourced in both human and financial capacity. The independence of the Judiciary is undermined by the hiring of judges and magistrates on contract instead of until retirement as the Constitution of Belize expressly requires. The Contractor Generals reports tabled in this House simply list the number of contracts dealt with by each Ministry. No report discloses any investigation or due diligence inquiry into whether the procurement process required by the Finance and Audit Act was complied with. These reports are not worth the paper they were written on. The budget of the

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The entire Judiciary shares a little over 1% of the National Budget. Trained Belizean lawyers are passed over for recruitment as magistrates; the Attorney General and his Solicitor General prefer to hire from outside. And it is not only Justice that is in crisis. The entire social, economic and political system is fast becoming a farce. There is growing inequality. The families of the all powerful Ministers are getting richer. The poor and hard working Belizeans are getting poorer. That is the reality of Belize today and this Budget will do nothing to change that harsh reality.