Millions of Dollars in Losses at Hol Chan Marine Reserve

It is one of the most popular natural attractions for both Belizeans and visitors, but tonight it appears that the Hol Chan Marine Reserve is in serious financial trouble.  Responding to reports of possible financial impropriety, incoming Minister of Civil Aviation, whose portfolio includes the “the Blue Economy,” hired the firm of Moore Magana LLP to conduct an audit of the reserve’s management. During a virtual press conference from San Pedro, Minister Andre Perez said the audit revealed that millions of dollars were mismanaged and revenue lost due to poor oversight, lack of proper budgetary procedures and possibly outright fraud. The disturbing results of the review looked at a three-year period from January 2017 to March 2020. The numbers are not pretty.  During the time frame in question, major capital expenditures increased by a million dollars, but according to Perez there is no paper trail to explain what the money was being spent on. The Marine Reserve’s loan obligations now stand at almost four hundred thousand dollars with overdrafts close to six hundred thousand dollars, split between the Belize and Atlantic Banks.  The audit indicates some fifty-five thousand dollars in collections will have to be written off and another seventy-nine thousand in collections, which were never pursued, could also be unrecoverable.  According to Minister Perez, eight hundred and forty-five thousand dollars in assets purchased over the last three years cannot be verified and expenses declared by the former executive director and other members of the management team were never authorized by the board.  These amounted to close to forty thousand dollars. Staff loans were also made totalling fifty-eight thousand dollars. Much of this went to the executive director and was due almost a year ago in March 2020.  While visitors believed the entrance fees they paid were going to support the reserve, discrepancies between the visitor logs and the actual amounts recorded in the ledges indicate fraudulent activity to the tune of almost seven hundred thousand dollars in lost visitor fees. An accountant was terminated in relation to this activity, but there was never any legal action taken to attempt to recover this money.  In all, the Hol Chan Marine Reserve auditor’s report suggests a grand total of one million, seven hundred thousand dollars in documented losses and an estimated four million in additional mismanaged funds.

Andre Perez

Andre Perez, Minister of the Blue Economy

“My friends, fellow residents of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, these findings are not the result of a witch hunt. There are the direct indication of years of financial abuse and mismanagement and managers and staff carefully selected and put there by the previous U.D.P. administration.  It is a pillaging of one of our most sacred and beloved treasures here in San Pedro. My presentation here today is a sound of war against corruption and downright robbery. Hol Chan is the first example. There are many more to come.”