Former Corozal Council Gives Employee Dump Truck as Payment for ‘Vacation Leave’

Rigoberto Vellos

As it relates to assets and inventory, Mayor Vellos says that one of the first tasks the council undertook upon assuming office is to review the possessions of the council. The task proved difficult as the council was not able to locate an asset register. Therefore, the council could not determine the fixed assets that it owns and their corresponding depreciation charges. The council did, however, manage to compile a list of assets that are unaccounted for.

Rigoberto Vellos, Mayor, Corozal Town 

“Upon checking the B.T.L. telephone bills, it was found out that three cell phones had been purchased for the council. None of these were listed on the inventory, and they could not be located at the council offices. Further investigations revealed that the former mayor, Hilberto Campos, had signed for and received all three phones. The total cost of these phones is a massive seven thousand, four hundred ninety-six dollars which is a total loss to the council as the council does not have the phones. When a demand letter was sent to Mr. Hilberto Campos for him to return the phones to the council since they are in fact the property of the Corozal Town Council, Mr. Campos returned two totally smashed cell phones. These phones had been purchased as recently as sixteenth, December 2017, less than 3 months before the new council took over and were unable to be of use, two destroyed and one given as a political gift to the Corozal North Division, of course, no record has been found of such a gift. A 2003 Ford Ranger pick-up truck, property of the Corozal Town Council was sold for two thousand dollars to Mr. Eddie Cau, the common-law husband of Ms. Estela Campos, former Town Administrator. And I still see the truck running around so it shows that the truck was still very, very good. One dump truck, the property of the Corozal Town Council, was given to an employee as compensation for vacation leave.”