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Barrow Breaks Form to Correct Briceno
posted (March 23, 2017)
And so, that presentation got the ball rolling. The Prime Minister will wind up the debate sometime tomorrow. That's when he usually rebuts all the major points made by opposition members and puts it all into one compressed presentation. But, today he broke form right after the opposition leader was finished. He said there was just one thing that was so glaring, that he could not leave it to stand unchecked. IT was a very unusual point of order - and here's how it went:...

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"The Prime also told the media that the bond restructuring fees, now listen, to the bond holders local and foreign advisors added to around 12 million dollars. We have now come to learn from the budget estimate itself, in CAP 2 expenditures for the Ministry of Finance - that the bond restructuring fee will amount to 20 million dollars. 8 million more than he led us to believe."

"Now, listen, the bond holders to sign on, they get a little bonus of 2.6 million dollars. And additional 5.6 million was paid to their negotiators - you know the US attorneys and their US accounts or whatever, so they get 5.6 million."

"Now, listen to this, member for Cayo South, check this out - our Belizeans negotiators who are supposed to try to help us, you know how much they are collecting? 11.8 million dollars. These are your numbers Prime Minister."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I merely wanted to correct this howler of which..."

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"Madam Speaker, on a point of order. We at this time at the closure..."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Provide for this correction..."

Hon. Francis Fonseca
"I want to establish clearly that is now setting a precedence and that the chair... every time any speaks, we are then able to respond to what they have to say if we want to clarify a point. That is now the precedence."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"All it does is to indicate what the expected out turn will be of 20 million Belize dollars. There is no breakdown between what is being paid to the foreign consultants and to the local consultants and for the Leader of the Opposition to suggest that the figures disclosed an 11.1 million dollar payment locally is absolutely outrageous."

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"He pointed out that he paid the bond holders to a signing on fee of I think it was about 1.3 million dollars US. You said that. Then he said that foreign consultants got paid 2.8 million dollars US. When you add that and convert it to Belize dollars, you end up with 9.2 million dollars. You subtract that from 20 million - that is what it will give you. It's his numbers, not my numbers."

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