Social Security/Income Tax deducted but not paid for OW Town Hall employees in 2011

Kevin Bernard

Aside from the heavy overdraft incurred by the previous administration, the mayor also disclosed that the mandatory Social Security contributions and Income Tax deductions were deducted from employees’ salaries but never paid in. According to Bernard, he has also discovered that the former mayor signed off an eighty-eight thousand dollar contract with the defeated Orange Walk Central candidate within days of the March seventh elections.

Kevin Bernard, Orange Walk Mayor

“Also, when we got into Town Hall we found an assessment from the Social Security Board dated August 2011. The Social Security Board claims that the Orange Walk Town Council owed them the sum of thirty-one thousand plus dollars. When we investigated further, we realized that the previous administration had collected employee contributions from all employees at the council but had neglected to pay them into the Social Security Board. In addition, in November of 2011, about a hundred persons were hired for a work program and nothing was paid into S.S.B. from either of the months that they worked. So far, we found that the Orange Walk Town Council in 2011 neglected to forward either employee or employer contributions to the S.S.B.  We’ve calculated that this will cost us a little over fifty thousand dollars. What we’ve also found so far is that the previous administration neglected to pay income tax for the entire year of 2011 and for two months in 2012, including January and February of 2012. We’ve estimated that this will cost the council another sixteen thousand dollars. We’re currently establishing contact with the ministry of finance to explore how this situation can be resolved in a manner that does not affect the services we are obligated to perform.  This contract to Denny Grijalva; what the then Mayor De La Fuente did just a couple weeks before elections was to sign this contract with Mr. Grijalva effectively indebting us to him. We now have to find eighty-eight thousand dollars from an already cash strapped council to pay Mr. Grijalva. So that is where we are today in terms of the official financial position of the council.”

According to the Mayor, a preliminary internal audit has been completed and found a number of irregularities in the operations of the previous council. Bernard says that a full time internal auditor will be hired and an independent audit will also be done for 2011-2012. Bernard also says that independent audits will be done at the end of each year in his council’s term in office. The Orange Walk Town Council also launched its new website, owtc.bz, which will provide updates and an avenue of communication for residents.