City Administrator Candice Miller Suspended as Crooked Deals Emerge

Tonight, the Belize City Council has confirmed that City Administrator, Candice Miller has been sent home on suspension. Miller will be at home for one month after being accused of dereliction of fiduciary duty. Leading up to the municipal elections, she was given a substantive contract by the previous administration at City Hall.  That contract extends for another four years and was signed even though the elections were just around the corner and it is not the normal practice to have granted such extensions past the life of the then Council.  Other senior managers also received extended contracts so that current Mayor Bernard Wagner finds himself surrounded by persons contracted on a political basis.  But an audit has turned up several questionable transactions at City Hall that occurred under the watch of Administrator Miller. One example is that she allowed the father of the previous mayor, Joe Bradley, an employee and talk show host at Wave Radio, to run up bills for food and drinks without having authorization. Those tabs amount to thousands of dollars, at least six thousand at a nearby Chinese restaurant for which City Hall is holding out on payment.  Then there is a fifty-nine thousand-dollar payment to a close associate of a former councillor for construction material. The audit reportedly found no supporting documents to confirm the purchase or delivery of the material. These and other issues, we have learnt, are at the centre of a long list of dubious deals at City Hall.