Mayor Spoke of “Re-Organization” in Wake of Transition Report

Bernard Wagner

City Administrator Candice Miller and office manager Lisbeth Butler were among six city council employees who were given their marching papers on Tuesday.  But were the dismissals foretold in Mayor Wagner’s press conference on April twenty-sixth, when he informed that a restructuring of the organizational makeup of City Hall was inevitable?  Those who have been made redundant are crying foul, including Cecil Jenkins who says that he has been victimized under the new regime.  During the presentation of the Transition Report, Mayor Wagner stated that a reorganization was indeed pending.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“The internal controls made up of laws, regulations and guidelines, even as they are now, gives the council what it needs to adequately assess, collect taxes and to effect prudent expenditure management.  The council even agreed to be guided by the Finance and Audit Reform Act as it relates to financial orders and store orders.  It also put some policies in place to further strengthen the provision of the regulation.  So we’ll need to strengthen our internal controls, right.  We can’t be engaged in disregarding internal controls going forward and we need to act urgently to restructure and reorganize management, from the top to the bottom and we must usher in a management culture that is efficient and results oriented.”

The three other persons who were dismissed are: Whitney Waight, Shana White and Wayne Samuels.