One does not need a doctoral degree in economics to understand that if you budgeted ,000 for the light bill last year and only had to spend 0, it does not mean that you are cutting spending on light bill when you budget 0 for it this year.
It is a simple concept that the Opposition and open opponents of the UDP administration either can’t understand or pretend to not understand. The entire country was ill served by day one of the debate on the General Revenue Appropriation Bill, 2012. The People’s United Party showed no intention of debating the budget; instead, they chose to distort the facts and in some cases they outright lied.
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia was caught lying extensively in her presentation by the Minister of Education, Hon. Patrick Faber. In his first term in government, Minister Faber embarked on a secondary school financing reform initiative. As a former high school teacher and vice principal, he understands very well how ineffective and disproportionate the old system of secondary school financing was. The Ministry of Education paid 70 % of teachers’ salaries in grant-aided schools and 100% of the salaries in government schools. In that system, the most prestigious schools hired the most qualified teachers, received the best education and the bulk of the budget for teacher salary. The less prestigious schools that could not attract the well-qualified teachers, but need the most help, received the smallest portion of the budget for teacher salary. The finance system sees that government pays for students’ education and not teacher salary. Therefore, a school receives money per student at the school. It allows government funds to be spread more proportionally based on the amount of students being educated. In this system, an expensive school with 600 students will receive the same amount of public funds as a less expensive school with 600 students. Even after the Minister of Education explained that the apparent budget cuts of some schools are as a result of the new secondary school financing guidelines, she went on to cry murder about cuts in schools across the country. At one point, she pointed to cuts in the Centers for Employment Training and ITVETs across the country. In this case, there was no issue of misunderstanding. She outright lied. The CETs and ITVETs across the country have seen an increase in their budgets and that increase is seen in black and white on page 201 of the budget book. She was challenged by the Speaker to show where she saw budget cuts in those institutions and she was unable to do so. SHAME!
Though Dolores had the most humiliating day, she was not the only PUP to stand up and defecate from the hole on their face. The shameless leader, an unrepentant former Prime Minister and rejected past leader, all stood up in the House on day one of the budget debate and misrepresented the facts. It would be pointless to call them liars and hypocrites because those labels do not bother them one bit. So just for the sake of trying, we must ask the Speaker of the House one question: “Mister Speaker, do you have to allow Fonseca, Musa and Briceno to speak when they stand up?” They did an extreme disservice to Belizeans by misrepresenting the facts of the budget instead of engaging the government in a meaningful discussion on areas of need that they feel had been truly overlooked. Or is it that they had trouble identifying any true such areas?
Day two of the budget debate is Thursday, July 12. The Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. Dean Barrow, will close the debate.
