The Ministry of Finance wishes to clarify emphatically that the Government of Belize’s annual budget is achieving its broad goals, allowing all obligations to be satisfied in a timely manner, including payroll. There is no requirement for the Government to access any financing whatsoever outside of the budgeted and approved sources.

It has come to the attention of the Ministry of Finance that certain statements made by the Financial Secretary in an internal document sent to accounting officers are being interpreted to suggest that the Government is broke and may have to resort to borrowing to meet the end of March payroll.

The statement made by the Financial Secretary was the standard financial year-end instructions given to Accounting Officers so as to restrain overspending and encourage senior public officers to remain diligent in the pursuit of budgetary objectives.

All the details of the Government’s budgetary performance for this fiscal year (FY) and its targets for FY 2018/19 will be shared when the Hon. Prime Minister, and Minister of Finance, makes his Annual Budget Speech on March 9, 2018.