Housing Minister chastises U.D.P. area rep. Marcel Cardona
The Venezuelan housing money ended up in government hands; that is all of eighteen point five million dollars. But the money is still embroiled in battle and this time it is within the ranks of government. At least six million of it has been disbursed, according to last reports from the Ministry of Housing; mostly for home improvements and new homes. But who has benefited? This morning, Minister of Housing Michael Finnegan landed a severe political blow to Orange Walk East Area representative Marcel Cardona, who now sits in the back bench after a major debacle over a contract by NICH, while he was Minister of Culture until last December. Finnegan says that the funds from the much sought after Venezuela Housing program that passed through Cardona’s hands for his constituency, has only benefitted a construction company owned by Cardona’s first cousin. This morning Finnegan said the figure was in the range of three hundred and ninety thousand dollars but clarified that figure to be less this afternoon. Nonetheless, the minister instructed his C.E.O. to cancel any further disbursement of funds to San Isidro Construction Center which is owned by the Cervantes family. News Five spoke to Ramon ‘Munchie’ Cervantes and Minister Finnegan.
Michael Finnegan, Minister of Housing
“I don’t care who is the area representative. Whether it is red or whether it is blue. And they set out to deceive the process and to bring the process into disrepute, I will expose it.”
Ramon Cervantes, Co-owner, San Isidro Construction Center (Via Phone)
“Mister Finnegan had called into the W.U.B. show this morning and said that we had supplied materials to the tune of three hundred and ninety thousand and that is wrong. You know, that is a lie, it’s totally false. We have supplied materials to the tune of around sixty, sixty-five thousand. And you know, they brought their orders, we are a business, we are a normal construction material and hardware business. We are the biggest in Orange Walk Town and its normal. They came to buy and we sold and it was to the tune of sixty to sixty-five thousand dollars.”
Jose Sanchez
“What your relationship between you and Mister Cardona?”
Ramon Cervantes
“Marcel Cardona is my first cousin.”
Jose Sanchez
“Now with the other divisions or constituencies in Orange Walk, are they also coming to your store to buy?”
Ramon Cervantes
“No, they’re not.”
Jose Sanchez
“Where are they going?”
Ramon Cervantes
“Landy’s and Sons.”
Michael Finnegan
“I don’t know who is Munchies or whatever the case may be. I know the company that I spoke about was San Isidro Construction. We had some two hundred and sixteen thousand worth of orders that was directed to this company. They had gotten, in the first instance, a hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars worth of order. And when we were notified that this was a family member of the area representative, I, orders were at the ministry totaling fifty-eight thousand dollars which was stopped. So it’s a total of about two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars worth of orders. And it is more than that also. There is another hundred and seventy-add thousand dollars in orders which were approved, but orders were not yet made out to the company, but it was in the process of being made out to the company. When I saw this and they came to my attention, I said this looked bad, this is not what the U.D.P. was preaching about, this look bad. How can one man direct some three hundred and add thousand, nearly four hundred thousand dollars worth of business to a family company? I informed cabinet last week Tuesday and cabinet instructed me to put a stop to it.”
