And, turning now to politics, the PUP says it isn't happy with the Barrow administration's prize offering, the First-Ever US Dollar-Denominated Treasury Note.
Government has touted it as the antidote for the economic slump caused by the COVID-19. They say Proceeds of the Note will shore up the official Central Bank foreign reserves.
Today the PUP held a virtual press conference to say, "is that even legal, tho?" Here's how the Leader of the opposition put it:
Hon. John Briceno, PUP Leader
"I found this out like the rest of the nation via media reports. It was never raised or discuss at the national oversight committee or at the economic oversight team. Today, our national executive discuss this issue and raised many important questions, which we believe the nation should consider. 1) what will this do to our national debt? 2) How will this affect our position with the super bond holders. 3) Can this be done without the approval of the national assembly and, 4) what will these funds be use for?"
Chris Coye, PUP "Economic Czar"
"The legal advice that they've gotten so far suggest that government is not authorized to issue these treasury notes, both under the treasury bills act and under the finance and audit reform act. So there will have to be an amendment to the treasury bills act and then they would have to be approval under the finance and audit reform act."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Will there be a legal challenge?"
Hon. John Briceno, PUP Leader
"I guess you never miss a beat, Jules, because we discuss that this morning at the national executive and the executive has ask the legal adviser to look into it, because in January the Chief Justice made a landmark decision where he says that you cannot be spending monies without the approval of parliament and he gave us 6 months to fix that and also a stay that it should not ever happen again, so that was brought up when we discussed this issue and the legal adviser was ask to take a look into that as to whether we should take a legal challenge in this."
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