Municipalities want their cut of $200,000 September celebrations budget!
Posted: 07/09/2007 - 09:20 AM
Author: Adele Ramos
On Monday, September 10, municipalities across the country are hoping to officially commemorate the 209th anniversary of the Battle of St. George’s Caye, but they will apparently have to do so without the certainty of a September Celebrations budget. That is because the Prime Minister Said Musa, the Minister of Finance, has yet to respond to a letter dated July 26, 2007, in which the 9 members of the Belize Mayors’ Association were requesting that “…all funds budgeted to be spent within municipal boundaries be given to the respective municipalities, as a show of solidarity and respect to the duly elected municipal councils.”
In a press release forwarded to us today, the association said, “Up to this time monies have not been disbursed to a single municipality. This is definitely not acceptable and we want the Prime Minister to take action on this since celebrations are to begin and all councils are already making preparations.”
We called the Office of the Prime Minister and the Financial Secretary today, but neither was able to offer any concrete information about the Government’s position on the letter.
The Prime Minister is reportedly not in office today but on a campaign tour in Cayo West; however, Financial Secretary Joe Waight told our newspaper that the matter has been under consideration and the P.M. Musa would possibly make a decision by tomorrow, Friday.
Cabinet Secretary Robert Leslie said that the celebrations are run by September Celebrations Committees in the various cities and district towns, and these are normally, though not always, controlled by area representatives.
Of note is that the majority of the area representatives are members of the ruling People’s United Party, while the municipalities, except for one, are governed by the Opposition United Democratic Party.
Leslie also informed us that while the budget for last year’s 25th anniversary of independence was over a million dollars – about $800,000 of that going to the Frankie Reneau “We are Belize” project – this year’s budget is $200,000. He added, however, that the demands are much higher than the budgeted figure for this year’s celebrations —in the region of half-a-million dollars.
Waight told us that last year the municipalities likewise asked the Government for monies to be disbursed directly to them, but in most cases they were instead disbursed through the respective area representatives.
In Orange Walk, Mayor Ravell Gonzalez, the secretary of the Belize Mayors’ Association, is planning what he described as a “low scale” September 10th, because of uncertainty over financing the celebrations.
“The 10th is on Monday and we have not received any confirmation. We cannot work without a budget, but we went ahead. We cannot leave the 10th dry without recognition, but we are doing it very low scale, taking into consideration that we just went through unexpected expenses for the two recent hurricanes and flooding which affected the district,” Gonzalez said.
The celebrations of Monday, September 10th will be marked with official ceremonies and a block party, he informed.
Gonzalez told us that last year the September celebrations funds were funneled through PUP Orange Walk Central area representative Johnny Briceño.
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