Email

Print

The Budget will be debated on Thursday and Friday 19th and 20th .  

And while that was the main business of the day, today's meeting was full of business.  Government had to bring a Contracts Validation Bill, basically to retroactively approve major works contracts that weren't taken to the house before singing.  The Leader of the Opposition wrote to the funders in the UK and the Caribbean Development bank saying the loans for the mega projects had not gotten house approval.  So today a bill was brought to seek retroactive approval, which threw the member for Cayo South into a fit - and he went off.  Here's what happened:â€Â¦

Hon. Julius Espat - PUP Cayo South
"In my humble opinion Madam Speaker, the architect of this bill has to be serial criminal. Madam Speaker, this the second time that we have come to this house where the Prime Minister has proposed a bill, the first one has been become an act to validate his illegal actions are the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of this country. He will have to criminal charges that will come Madam Speaker; there is no way out of it."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"Referring to me in terms that in effect, call me a criminal. I will forget that he is the source of that sort of an utterance. In terms of contents of speeches and what can and cannot be done, that is simply impermissible and I will ask you Madam Speaker to put a stop to that. He wants to say unconstitutional but criminal, please."

Hon. Julius Espat
"Yet Madam Speaker they lock up my bwai constituency for a corned beef. Lock him up for a corned beef when the highest man in this land acts illegally and unconstitutionally and he comes here in our face to present another stupid bill (rips bill) that means absolutely nothing! That bill Madam Speaker is a shame that bill should never come into this house Madam Speaker, that bill is a disgrace Madam Speaker, that bill should never see the light of day! Thank you."

Laura Longsworth - Speaker of the House
"I think that we really have gone overboard this afternoon and we are really... I'm glad the member sat down because you violated the rules this afternoon and I was about to ask somebody to ask you to leave this house because that's out of order member and it was disrespectful."

Hon. Kareem Musa - PUP Caribbean Shores
"This is an admission of guilt by the Prime Minister of this country that he has committed yet another wrong against the people of Belize. We have a Prime Minister who is openly admitting and confessing that has violated the finance and audit reform act. It states he wants to validate the omission by the minister to lay the government contracts on the table. Madam Speaker what this amounts to, once again, is the Prime Minister waving a magic wand like he's some sort of a Wizard and it's some 240 million dollars' worth of contract, most of it to guess who? Imer Hernandez, most of it to Imer Hernandez, 240 million and this morning, they had the nerve to give us on flash drive and say see the contracts ya. See the flash drive ya, this is how democracy works now Madam Speaker and if I mi lee more excited I mi wa stone it but I won't do that Madam Speaker but this is how democracy works now."