Of course, while the Prime Minister justifies this Supplementary Bill and the resulting spending as "urgent and unforeseen", the Opposition UDP still takes issue with it. That's because they are coming to the House of Representatives for permission to spend that money after the fact.
And as we showed you last week, the Ruling Party invested a lot of time, effort, and money into getting a judgment from former Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin that former Prime Minister Dean Barrow was doing the same thing, but on an exponentially bigger scale. The retired judge agreed with the PUP Claimants - one of whom was PM Briceno - that this practice of spending money and THEN coming to the House for the necessary approvals, goes against the law.
Opposition Leader "Shyne" Barrow, the son of the former PM, made that point today:
Hon. Mose "Shyne" Barrow - Leader of Opposition
"Madam Speaker, you know, I do support the payment of the 1.5 million to the stevedores. Certainly, as a representative from the Southside, the stevedores mean a lot to me and to the members from the Southside. And I certainly, empathize with their struggles and the difficulties that they have had as laborers in this country. But, I would just like to point out to the Belizean people, the rank double standard, borderline hypocrisy - I want to be polite. It is this same Prime Minister and I believe the Member from Cayo South who took the former Prime Minister Barrow to court for spending money before coming to the National Assembly for approval. And, we have seen this happen under the Briceno Administration, over and over again. And this is another example where this money has already been paid to the stevedores, before coming to the National Assembly. So, when the other side pretends to be pious and tries to lambaste the former administration, I would just like the people of this country to see the rank hypocrisy, where they are doing exactly what they have criticized the previous government of doing."
Gilroy Usher Senior, the PUP Area Rep. for Port Loyola, also spoke on this supplementary appropriation bill, and here's what he had to about the considerations that the government made in favor of the stevedores:
Hon. Gilroy Usher - PUP Area Rep., Port Loyola
"The government decided to make this ex gratia payment to the stevedores who have never flinched in using their energy and sweat to develop this country. When American Sugar Refinery, with the support of the Port of Belize, decided to export the vast majority of its sugar from the Big Creek Port in the south, instead of the Port of Belize, for increased profits, with absolutely no regard for how that decision would negatively impact the lives of the stevedores, who are mainly marginalized persons on the Southside of Belize City. Madam Speaker, it must also be noted that although the Port of Belize would also lose tremendous revenue, with less use of its port for export by American Sugar Refinery, the Port of Belize supported the deal because they probably saw it as an opportunity to drastically reduce the number of stevedores needed in pursuit of their main objective, which is to weaken, if not crush the stevedores' representation, by the Christian Workers Union, which has always lobbied passionately for just benefits for its members. Madama Speaker, as a result of that decision by ASR, the stevedores suddenly suffered more than 50% cut in their monthly or yearly income. Madam Speaker, due to that decision being taken for larger profits, and questionable motives, by two of the largest companies in the country, if a stevedore's yearly salary was 24 thousand dollars, it dropped to less than 12 thousand dollars per year, with absolutely no support from either of the two companies, to assist the dedicated stevedores in making up for their lost income."
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