Mayor Bradley on the Offensive When Asked About 2013 Audit

Darrell Bradley

In the end, there was an agreement to disagree, respectfully. We’ve seen no 2013 audit, and neither has the Council, which in our books means there is no 2013 audit. But the Mayor insists that there is – just that the auditor slipped up and didn’t get the job done. We figured that it’s fair to question the Mayor about a gap in the audit trend of his Council, but again he took some offence at what he perceives to be a criticism of his performance in City Hall.

Mike Rudon

“If you have a ten year period in any government, P.U.P., U.D.P., V.I.P., N.I.P., whoever and there is a ten year period and you have three audits that are missing or four audits that are missing…”

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

“No audit is missing.”

Mike Rudon

“There is no 2013 audit that we have seen.”

Darrell Bradley

“You don’t know that and I’m telling you. See this is what I am saying and I’m saying see, this is what is unfair. This City Council, take it for what you will…take it as a response, take it as a non-response. These questions arise because of our emphasis, our unbridled emphasis on accountability and transparency. No other mayor, none whatsoever in the history of this city has produced any audit. None whatsoever. I am not telling you that the City Council’s accounts are perfect. I am not telling you that we have a structure here that is something that is ofay with every financial rule and regulation. But I am telling you that for the last three years, we have run this city council in a way that we aspire to be the best organization that we have be. So you are going to ask me—and I remember Marisol had asked about formatting issues in an audit—you are going to ask in relation to irregularities with the 2013 audit, the back and forth with our auditors, that fact that there were substantial emphasis from myself why that audit was so delayed. I made it a point every council meeting to insist upon us getting that audit as quick as possible. We have moved to a new auditor. There is a reason why we moved to a new auditor because that audit was so outstanding for so long. And the 2014 auditor was able to come in quite professionally, review all of our records, certify our accounts, despite the fact of the delay with the 2013 audit. When a person does the 2014 audit, that means that they are checking our books and accounts. That is what we want. So I am not standing here to tell you that everything here in terms of audits are one hundred percent. I don’t know that; I don’t do a lot of these issues.  But I can tell you that we have emphasized transparency, accountability. I said this two years ago; that when that first audit came out and it was an adverse audit, the first thing that we did was to make the audit public because we wanted people to question everything and anything that happens here are City Council. And for the last three years, there have been no irregularities at City Hall.”