CitCo employees still being questioned about missing funds; no charges yet

Forty-eight hours—it’s the maximum time that a person can be detained before being charged. And for the employees of the Belize City Council in custody, their detention time will elapse sometime around eight tonight. But word coming from CIB personnel is that it is still uncertain whether they will be charged for allegedly stealing approximately sixty thousand dollars from the council. According to Superintendent Julio Valdez, the employees in question appear to be striking a deal to pay back the stolen monies. The internal audit at the council has been going on for two days and now there is information that more arrests could come. Sources say that the amount of funds recovered has increased from thirteen thousand to sixteen thousand dollars. The employees who are attached to the Revenues and Valuation Department are said to have accessed City Hall’s Financial System to get their hands on the thousands of dollars. In a release today, the council says that taxpayers are assured that monies paid have been entered in the system and no receipts are missing.