P.M. denies that Marion withdrew foundation funds
Prime Minister Said Musa returned from a CARICOM heads of government meeting today ready to continue his nation-wide tour. But before he hits the road tomorrow, there were a few issues the P.M. had to put to bed. One of them is the rumour mill’s latest…that Marion Jones has removed all the money from her foundation’s account in Belize. The P.M. says there’s simply no truth to the report.
Prime Minister Said Musa
“As far as I am aware the money has not been removed, in fact what is being awaited now is a group of consultants who are coming down to do the design for the four hundred metre track and the upgrading of the Marion Jones Sports Complex. I’m not aware of any truth or validity of this story that appeared in the newspaper. As far as I know, Miss Marion Jones established an account in Belize of her counterpart funds. As far as I’m aware, the money is still there, as far as I’m aware nobody could touch the money, so I don’t know where this is coming from.”
Janelle Chanona
“How much money are we talking about? How much is in the fund?”
Prime Minister Said Musa
“Well she has pledged a million dollars and my understanding was she did open an account in Belize, but we have not moved to that stage yet where we have need of the money because as I said, we are still in the preliminary stage of getting the studies completed before the actual project starts.”
In other news from Belmopan, on Monday Prime Minister Musa will meet with the widows and children of two men killed during a violent confrontation between police and loggers in Toledo’s Otoxha Village. According to the P.M., the socio-economic reality of life without a breadwinner left the government no choice but to offer the relatives some financial assistance.
Prime Minister Said Musa
“It’s based strictly on humanitarian grounds. The two widows, one has five children, very young children, the other has three young children. And I pledged to assist both families with an ex gratia award based strictly on humanitarian grounds, without any prejudice whatsoever to the investigations that are ongoing. This is not a justice matter, this is strictly assistance to poor people, particularly the children who are without their fathers and we decided to assist them out of humanitarian need.”
Janelle Chanona
“Has that amount been finalised?”
Prime Minister Said Musa
“No, they will be coming up to Belmopan on Monday the eighteenth and I’ll be meeting with the Solicitor General and we’ll work out a reasonable ex gratia award to them.”
