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The unions and the Chamber of Commerce have already rejected Government’s decision to pay a 1-million-dollar “honorariumâ€￾ to the teachers who didn’t strike last October. The unions called it union busting, and today, the NGO community called it “unauthorized spendingâ€￾.

In a statement titled, â€œthe Belize Network of NGO’s Rebukes GOB’s Unauthorized Spendingâ€￾, the NGO’s said that they are in full support of the statements made by the chamber and the NTUCB.

That statement says, quote, â€œGOB’s decision to spend $1 million of unbudgeted taxpayers’ money to reward teachers who did not participate in the strike amounts to an expenditure that was not approved by the National Assembly. This makes a mockery of the national budget planning exercise.â€￾

The statement continues to scold the Government, pointing out that the country is cutting expenses and increasing taxes, and so quote, â€œIt is irreconcilable that Belmopan wants to spend un-budgeted monies during what should be an era of fiscal tightening.â€￾ End quote.

We do note that we checked the budget book for the 2017/2017 fiscal year, which is officially known as the Draft Estimates of Revenues and Expenditure. We couldn’t find any line items for a million dollars to be paid as an honorarium to the teachers who didn’t strike. The closest thing to that was a line item for 465 thousand dollars, which was under the Ministry of Education’s Strategic Management Administration. We contacted Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber via text message for a comment, but up until news time, he hadn’t responded.