The Whylie Report on B.D.F. missing weapons
Security at the headquarters of the B.D.F. was breached last week. It was a stunning revelation that has brought disrepute to the force. Forty-two weapons, including seven M-4 carbine rifles were stolen from the armory at the weapons bulk store and these are surely to end up in the dangerous streets. The date of the burglary is not known because the armory was not checked as scheduled and security measures are seriously lacking. It was alluded that there was collusion, but that was not confirmed when the Ministry’s C.E.O., Allen Whylie, gave a press conference when it was detected that the arsenal was missing.
News Five has seen copies of two reports: one from C.E.O. Whylie to Minister, Carlos Perdomo, dated October thirteenth and the other from the CIB to the Commissioner of Police. Whylie asks that his report be destroyed for fear of it “getting out.” It is based on the CIB report of the previous day, October twelfth. Whylie says that entry to the compound was from a hole made in the chain link fence situated in the back where trees and shrubs have taken over. This was not established at the press conference. He asserts that entrance to the warehouse was gained by cutting both hasp and staples that locked two of the five doors. Furthermore, three of the four main lights on the lamp post surrounding the building and the senor lights were not operable. That aside, there was a major breakdown in who was responsible for the accounting of the weapons. Captain George Link was scheduled to work on September twenty-eighth to October fourth, 2011. He did not report as force field officer because he was commanding officer and no one was named to replace him. 
According to Whylie, the Force Field Officer when the weapons were discovered missing was Captain Damian Amaya who was scheduled to work from October seventh but when he reported to duty there was no one to hand over to him. Another travesty is that Roy Flores, the warrant officer, who is the only one authorized to check the weapons, claimed he was too busy to carry out the check. The long and short is that the weapons were not checked for a period of twelve days; the last check was on September twenty-eighth by Captain Garcia. Whylie, however, reports that Garcia the technical quarter master sergeant claimed that on October seventh, the weapons were accounted for and that another check was made on the eleventh. But in the case of the eleventh, there was no corroboration because no one signed for the keys.
Whylie recommends the suspension of technical quarter master sergeant, Roy Flores, the force field officer Damain Amaya and the deputy commandant of the force, Javier Castellanos. He also recommends strengthened security. According to inside sources, no investigations have taken place within the B.D.F. in respect of the CIB’s findings.
Perdomo, Whylie and the Commandant heads should role because one is incharge and the other is deputy and the other is first steward but as usual, escapegoats will be found. I feel no pain for Flores, Amaya and Castellanos because as soldiers, they should always be on their guard.
You are joking, the report blames a couple lower rank officers, please be fair, from the general and his top command should be fired. What you see now in bdf, is a culture of lazy and ineffective leadership, and that comes from the general. In a army of 1000 men, trust me, its just plain lazyiness. I hope the ministry shakes up the top command, the men deserve better leaders in high command.
If that building in the photo is the building in question then it is not appropriate to store weapons.
Weapons should be stored in building where there are number of people located.
Like a building with a long hallway. Where others can observe individuals going out and coming in.
Also they should have a security feature in place where individuals would have to swipe a badge in order to gain access to another part of the building. This would serve as a check to who was in what area of the building and at what time. Because each individual will have their own access badge they won’t be able to deny not being at a certain location at a certain time.
Then why would they have just a padlock to secure the door of the building where these weapons were housed? These horse and staples are not the best choice for security purposes. Lets go back again to security system with access badges and individuals having to swipe their badges at different points along a path to get to these weapons. Just a simple dead bolt type lock would be more secure than a padlock. All you need for a padlock are some bolt cutters with a deadbolt they would have to at least pry open the door that would make some kind of noise.
Then also our security forces needs a complete overhaul from the ministers of government they have, the superintendents, captains and leaders they have, features they currently have in place, the training they receive, to the wages and benefits they earn.
After all a civilization is only as strong as their military and their security forces. These police, court judges, magistrates and BDF need better wages and benefits.They need to live in their own guarded communities away from the public and the criminal elements so them and their families can live in peace so they don’t have to worry about retribution from the criminals elements they are arresting prosecuting and sending to prison.
They need better pay and benefits so the y can live a comfortable life so when the criminal elements offer them $50,000 BZE for an arsenal of 32 government issued weapons they can avoid the temptation because they would be able to say, ” I can’t take this chance because I will earn that in 2 years and will still have a career for another 20 years.” If this is not the case then they will jump on this offer without no hesitation.
With better pays and benefits a lot of our young educated people would take on law enforcement and criminal justice as a career instead of sitting at a desk at Nova Scotia or Barclays for $10 to $12 BZE an hour.
Time to wake up Belize. The criminal elements have changed. So our society and government culture has to change. If not the criminal elements will beat us to the punch almost every time.
Only GOD can help us now.
Dean Barrow will meet with gang members and fight with party members over idiotic stuff but so far has nothing to say about the inferior capabilities of the jokers in charge of the country’s security.The whole country is in a big mess simply because competent people cannot be found.DISGRACE IS THE WORD!!
If I have a gun at home I have to provide better storage for it than the BDF has to for their whole arsenal! And I go to jail if they catch me without it.
Looks like Kolbe Foundation should be filling up with all the incompetent people.
firstly, the building or confinement where weapons are stored for the country should NEVER EVER be aired on live TV…..we should have our minister CEO deputies and all that changed NOW! the confidence in our soldiers to protect us is just completely a lack of discipline. in the past these things would never happen.
Seems like there is no leadership. These are the things that leaders should pay strict attention to. To be proactive, protective and very secure about weapons storage and accounting should be elementary to any military establishment.
This is obviously a systemic problem so from the top down should be courtmarshalled.
The other problem is the BDF sends younger people to several different countries to get good training and when they return they religate them to insignificant, secreterial duties. They should be used in positions where they can be most effective.
Wow. I can’t believe this is happening. Someone should b fired
What else is new Belize, unpaid teachers, high unemployment, rogue cops, truncated DPP office, corrupted politicians, incompetent ministers, break down in law and order, the PM meeting/negotiationg with common criminals, DANGEROUS WEAPONS MISSING FROM BDF…..what else……LEADERSHIP CRISIS BIG TIME.
How hard is it to guard an arsenal? POST A BLOODY SOLDIER THERE 24/7!
It’s the most basic obligation of the military, protect your guns!
HEADS SHOULD ROLL FOR THIS COLOSSAL INCOMPETENCE — and I’m not talking about some poor Corporal.
Someone once said something like, “Every so often, it’s necessary to hang an Admiral to encourage the others.” THAT TIME IS NOW.
IN A CASE LIKE THIS, YOU KNO THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SCAPE GOATS. HOW CAN JUDGEMENTS BE MADE WHEN CLEARLY MOST OF THE FAULTS ALL STARTS FROM THE TOP. …. ( POOR LIGHTING, CHEAP SECURITY SYSTEM……) THE GENERAL, PERDOMO N DI WHOLE CROWD NEED TO GET OFF THEIR LAZY BEHIND N STOP PASSING JUDGEMENTS WITHOUT PROPER INVESTIGATION. THIS IS WHY OUR COUNTRY IS IN CRISIS…… THE SMALL FISH WILL ALWAYS BE BULLIED TO COVER THIER SORRY A**
The ongoing unprecedented events and occurences within our country, leave me speechless. Image our security forces giving away more than forty very dangerous weapons to criminal.
When a law abiding citizen apply, to legally obtain a license for a weapon to defend himself and his family, its like a nightmare; you wait month for a response only to find out that you are not approve on the grounds: you do not have proper security for the weapon or ”you reason given does not warrant the issuance of one.”
Retired CEO you are on target! stolen wepons? I was born at night but not last night. If I was the the Attorney General in Belize prison population would be up to the max with BDF’S and anyone in charge of those wepon. This is not a fly by night, it was organized by the same good for nothing peace of $#.% who suppose to protect and defend. Make no mistake about it, the people running this country know’s much more than what they are telling the citizen and you can take that to the bank. Every time I read the news there got to be some very strange and unusual stories like it’s a freaking mavie.