Ex-Mayor: We Can Document What We Did

Darrell Bradley

Former Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley came out swinging today, after remaining quiet in the face of questionable city council spending that have since been exposed by his successor.  Last Thursday, Mayor Bernard Wagner made public the results of an audit exercise conducted at City Hall via a transition report.  That presentation outlines the expenditure of the municipal government under the previous U.D.P. administration.  Included in the purported findings are several delinquencies, such as failure to pay General Sales Tax, Income Tax and Social Security in a timely manner.  This afternoon, Bradley broke his silence by wholly dismissing the idea that his council was ever behind on those payments.  He even touched on the issue of an outstanding bill that is said to have been racked up by his father at a Chinese restaurant across from City Hall.  Bradley says that all expenses came with requisite documentation which the present administration refused to mention in its report.

Darrell Bradley, Former Belize City Mayor

“I would dispel any notion that there were any delinquencies.  First and foremost, I heard somewhere that the new city council was doing an audit.  If they want to do that that’s fine, but I want to say categorically and clearly that the reason that you can do an audit is because we emphasized transparency and accountability and we made sure that the records were there.  So that when I inherited City Hall I didn’t inherit any records, I didn’t inherit any documents, I didn’t inherit any clear plan, procedure or strategy.  This new mayor is inheriting a city council that, for all intents and purposes is well run.  You have a very professional, well-managed staff and you had a city council that had operational goals during my six years and we can show what we did.  In relation to record-keeping or so forth, I think that what they’re presenting, and you’re perfectly in line if you want to say, okay then, a new party has come in, a new leadership has come in and you want to look to the past, that’s fine.  But people elected you to do a job, so my advice, if he will take a little bit, is look to the future.  There’s nothing really there in terms of any kind of irregularity and one thing that you will say is that whenever you say if there is any expenditure on this or that, there is clear documentation and there is evidence to show where monies were spent.  One of the problems that I have is that if you do an audit, you have to show supporting documentation.  There is one thing that was said in relation to a check payment that went to a Chinese establishment.  A thing that I will, and I impressed upon this to you Isani, a big thing that an organization like a city council pays for is food.  I saw that they produced a check.  Whenever you sign a check for city council there is a wad of documents that’s behind that.  So there will be receipts, there will be a budget, there will be line items and there will be a detailed report as to where that money is going for.  You never have a check for six thousand, five thousand, four thousand and the mayor or whomever just writes a check.  There’s a significant amount of paperwork that goes to that.  All I’m saying is that if you want to do a report, which is fine, you are the leader.  You are the mayor of the city, present honest and fair and balanced information because when I was there nobody can really say that well you were unbalanced.”