PUP Meeting Sees Call to Raise CEO Spending Threshold

At the People’s United Party meeting on Saturday, one of the most curious events was when the Stann Creek West constituency through Miss Universe Belize, Bella Zabaneh, rose to recommend that the government raise the ten-thousand-dollar threshold when it comes to CEOs authorization for public spending.  Here is how that went with Prime Minister Briceno responding immediately.

Isabella Zabaneh: “I would like to urge the consideration of a lift of the threshold from $10,000 to a higher number. What matters is value for money and $10,000 is simply too low for ministries to be allowed to spend. It’s micromanaging everybody from the top down to the bottom. We need strong oversight, but $10,000 is too low in this economy. Maybe 30 years ago it was appropriate but it burdens the office of financial secretaries to be micromanaging all of the ministries. Great leaders are remembered for making hard decisions so I urge this administration to consider making a hard decision. We are not a party of thieves, we are a party of love, and we are not afraid of any other party or the media propaganda that they will push. Thank you.”

Henry Charles Usher, PUP Chairman: “Thank you. We have time for two more. Two more gentlemen, so we have one, two, and then that’s it. Sorry, Chairman…..”

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “I must commend Bella for her thoughtful and to be brave to make such a recommendation considering what we’re going through. But what we’re doing at this time, we’ve been working with the IDB for over a year, coming up with new legislation where we want to set up what you call the Central Procurement Unit.  And under the Central Procurement Unit there’s going to be a portal where all of government contracts and business would have to go through that portal so everybody can see what services the government is going to be needing. And then once the contracts have been approved it’s going to be on that portal so everybody can see who has been approved these contracts. And you are right. When you’re looking at $10,000 in a budget of about $1.8 billion, it’s really not a lot in the scheme of things. But there has to be proper reporting. And that is what the problem that we’ve been facing. So one of the things we’re looking at is probably increasing that $10,000 to a higher number. But there’s going to be a lot of now more reporting, a lot  more oversight, and a lot  more transparency. So that people can see what is happening and to ensure that we continue to manage the people’s money the way we should. We signed a compact with you that we’re going to be different and we continue and we will be different than the UDP. Thank you very much.”