Oil Bonanza in Belize…

But who’s benefitting?

Early this week, PUP personality Vaughan Gill broke the news on the Vibes Radio morning show – news that Irish investors in BNE had gotten their first ‘significant and massive dividend’ and were ‘laughing all the way to the bank.’ The source was an article in the Irish based Belfast Telegraph, an article which claimed that some investors had received as much as US$750,000 as a return on their investment. The local media picked up the news, and as we go to press tonight, Belizeans are posing some very pertinent questions about this apparent ‘oil bonanza’ which has benefitted ‘hundreds’ of Irish investors but seems to have stopped far short of benefitting Belize and Belizeans.

The article in the Telegraph tells a story of a rich ‘black gold’ find which is frankly quite surprising to Belizeans, who have yet to see much of a concrete benefit from BNE, which the article claims is ‘the number one revenue driver in the country.’ The article also claims that BNE has had a major impact on the ‘local community in terms of employment, revenue, funding and social development.’ BNE is claiming revenue in the area of US$112M in 2008, and the article boasts that ‘more than $100,000 has already been donated to local schools and flood relief schemes after the company and its Irish investors signed a deal which ensured monies from oil revenues were spent on improving health, education and the environment.’

In the last four years, BNE is said to have generated revenues in excess of $700million. But the reality is that Belizeans have seen very little reason to jump for joy, as that windfall seems to have been carried off to parts unknown. The previous administration had been in the process of passing legislation which would have greatly increased government’s take from the industry. In addition, the previous administration had also created a Petroleum Fund, through which revenues from oil would have been disbursed to specific areas including health, education and social projects instead of going into the consolidated fund.

But since elections in 2008, nobody seems to know what the Barrow administration’s policy is when it comes to oil. After a failed attempt to collect a windfall tax months after entering office, this UDP government has gone mute when it comes to the oil. Belizeans, then, have no idea how much revenue is being taken in by government even as tens of thousands of barrels of oil leave our shores. Belizeans also have no idea of how any money generated from the oil is being spent by government, though it is a certainty that the money has not been spent on health, education or social projects.

The result of the Barrow Administration’s reticence on the oil issue and mismanagement of the oil industry is that while more than $700M has been generated for BNE from oil in Belize, our economy is in recession and latest unofficial statistics show that 43% of our population is living in poverty, with a further 14% vulnerable to poverty. This is unacceptable, especially in the face of the bounty which has been visited on these Irish investors as a result of our oil.

Belizeans are calling on the Barrow administration to immediately disclose what percentage of revenue government is receiving from the oil find. Belizeans also demand accountability from government as to what that money is being spent on. And finally, Belizeans demand that the Barrow administration stop playing games and ensure that we receive our rightful share of this non-renewable resource, a resource which seems to be slipping out of our grasp with nothing to show for it, at least here in Belize.

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