Briceño Responds to Hypocrisy Charges Over Supplementary Allocations

Prime Minister John Briceño is facing pointed accusations for breaking the same laws which prompted him to drag the Dean Barrow administration before the Supreme Court. The controversy centers on supplementary revenue appropriation bills brought to parliament after public funds had already been spent, a practice the Briceño-led Opposition fiercely challenged under the previous administration. In fact, the Supreme Court later ruled that as much as one-point-three billion dollars was spent without prior parliamentary approval, a legal fight in which Briceño himself was a claimant. Now with similar questions being raised under his watch, the Prime Minister is rejecting suggestions of hypocrisy, insisting the circumstances are different and that corrective steps were taken once the issue was identified.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I will not accept that, simply because that happens as you coming close election. That is the way with politicians – that happens. Some costs were incurred, nothing out of hand. And then once you win, you are concentrating in setting up the new administration. Even though it’s the same party it’s still a new administration and a lot of things have to be, come into play. It is only I think in September when the Financial Secretary brought it to my attention – not even I was aware, to be honest with you. To say, you know what we have this outstanding. And I said we need to get it done. We have put a supplementary budget for this year. And I said, let’s do both of them. We have do the right thing. And we can’t be accusing a previous government and try to go down that road so no I do not accept your remarks but yes we do admit that it is something that we should have done immediately, but as soon as it came within a few months late, we got it done.”