Belize Finance Reform

This is an invitation that I received from the office of the Prime Minister to attend a Finance Reform Forum. At this meeting the prime minister introduced his party’s plans for reform in the way that public finances were handled. Many of the measures that he proposed came from a paper on public consultation that was compiled some 4 or 5 years ago, as one of the speakers said it was kind of like closing the barn door after the horse was gone. I found the remarks by Mr Burgos a businessman to be most interesting speaking from an accountant's view he pointed out that many of the proposals appeared on the surface to be good and helpful but he went on to point out that there was no punishment for those that failed to follow the rules. He also pointed out that there were many loop holes in the new rules. One such loophole concerned government contracts where it stated that any agreement entered into by government that was in writing was a binding contract and therefore subject to the new rules, whereas if it remained a gentleman’s agreement or a verbal agreement the rules didn’t apply.

All in all I found the meeting to most interesting.

In the last few days we have had two days of strikes by the business community and four days of strikes by the teachers union. Last Friday was the first debate of the new budget, while the minister’s were in the house chambers debating about 3000 protesters were on the steps of the house where rocks were thrown at the police, several persons were arrested but no ones was injured. The crowd was finally dispersed around 5:30 pm with the aid of tear gas, pepper spray and police in full riot gear.

On a much brighter side Andy and Lisa Stout arrived on January 15 it will be great to have the extra help in dealing with the students, this will also allow me more time to continue working on the plans for the new high school.

Thank You all for your support both in Prayer and with your giving.

HIS Servants in Belize

Mike and Kay Cain