Belmopan FO Defends Mayor

While Mayor Palacio distances herself from the allegations, she has solid defense in the person of Melvyn Edenojie, the council’s finance officer.  He told News Five that not only has Palacio done nothing underhanded, but that she has also created a system whereby every transaction is subject to processes and is properly documented.

Melvyn Edenojie

Melvyn Edenojie, Finance Director, Belmopan City Council

“As a matter of fact, I had spoken to one of the councilors who itemized that – who basically put that on the list and as the Finance Director, I approached the person – “why would that be on the list? I’m responsible for the finances of the council. And the reply I got was basically that there was an event that was held earlier in the year and a donation was given to the mayor. It was in U.S. dollars, a thousand two hundred and fifty dollars U.S., which was given to the mayor in front of the person (councilor) not knowing -the person put that in the list but those monies were turned in to the council and a receipt was printed for the same monies. I printed the receipt and I gave it to the mayor the other day and I said “forward that to the person in the U.S. who gave you the donation. It was an African lady. So when I saw that, I approached the lady and she was like – the person told me “Oh yeah, that’s what I saw.” So I said, “do you know there’s a receipt for that?” She was shocked. I said, “You don’t go slandering people’s name without finding out the information.”