Minister says CitCo arrests demostrate zero tolerance
Tensions have cooled off between City Hall and the Belize Maintenance Limited, but Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers is still in the hot seat facing criminal charges. News Five spoke today on this issue with Attorney General Elrington and Minister of National Security, Carlos Perdomo, who had different perspectives on the issue. Elrington says the financial problems could have been sorted out through communication, but Minister of National Security, Carlos Perdomo, quickly said the arrests are a sign that government has zero tolerance for corruption.
Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“The Police follow the direction of the D.P.P. You will remember that there was a very serious audit done and I have a copy of the audit report on my desk. After that audit report, the DPP received it, she instructed the Commissioner of Police on what to do and we have done that. The situation is in the courts and that’s where—the police is not a judge, the Minister of National Security is not a judge. We execute, we charge, when we go to court somebody else takes it over and the court becomes the judge. So it’s no witch hunt. In fact it’s politics, so it’s like the saying “the minister noh do nothing but we’re working our backsides off.”
“The U.D.P. promised that whoever is accused of wrong-doing, they will make sure that it goes through the right process. The P.U.P. wudda mi done put dat under di carpet. It’s not easy and it’s not always huggy, huggy, kissy, kissy; it’s a serious business to tell people look we serious about anything in how we spend the people’s money.”
Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General
“I don’t think they were able to communicate with each other, they talked but never communicated. And so they never formed a team. And they told us because we had a session where we talked to them and one of them got right up and said Mr. Elrington we understand what you are saying to us but you have to understand that we are the elected representatives. And that is true, they are the elected representative, but when they can’t pay he bill, they have to call the Prime Minister and then the prime minister already has his own problems finding monies. So what they did on their own ultimately ended up in the Prime Minister’s lap. That is the difficulties we are faced with. And perhaps if they had allowed themselves to be guided some more, if there was sufficient communication, they may not have done some of the things that they have done. So that is what the problem is. It’s a problem of an absence of communication. They’re talking but they’re not communicating and I think it’s got to be worked out. Those things remain allegations until they are proven. They are allegations so I don’t want to comment on those.”
The charges against the Mayor and her finance team came after the government-appointed Finance Director, Patrick Tillett, told police that quarter of a million were unaccounted for at city hall. Tillett claimed that the four charged failed to get his authorization when spending fifty dollars or more and had engaged in a practice contrary to the Council’s regulations. It is not yet certain whether additional other charges will be levied, but there is one interesting revelation. The twenty-two charges which Mayor Moya Flowers, Davis, Bhudrani and Vanjani face for uttering fuel receipts worth seventy dollars bear the name Esso Service Station at two miles on the Northern Highway. But records show that the council deals with Shell and not Esso.
