Forgery at the Ministry of Housing involving thousands of dollars
Lawrence Sylvester
There is word tonight that police are looking for a staff member of the Ministry of Housing. The officer allegedly forged the signature of the Minister of Housing on vouchers for small grants recommended by Minister Michael Finnegan. The amount of money involved is said to be in the range of seven thousand dollars. The forgery took place in a three-week period between October third and twenty-fourth. When the incident came to light, the second class clerk, Giovanni Emmanuel was demanded to return the money. The Ministry has recovered a portion, but a remainder of the funds are still missing and so is the officer. We got confirmation from the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry, Lawrence Sylvester, who told News Five that an official report has been lodged with the Belmopan Police.
Via Phone: Lawrence Sylvester, C.E.O., Ministry of Housing & Urban Development
“They are currently in pursuit of four administrative criminal and civil procedures available to the ministry to recover the balance of the law and to lead the disciplinary action or the view to dismissal of the officer involved.”
Duane Moody
“Sir, how was this detected?”
Via Phone: Lawrence Sylvester
“It was detected in our usual checks and balance, in our usual verification, in our usual reconciliation of our accounts, the system works and so on. The system works so whichever public officer, a low level public officer in his assistance will be detected to forgery. It is a criminal offence on obtaining funds or property by deception and he has been caught. It was because of the proper systematic procedures here in the Government of Belize in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, simple story, nothing sensational, someone stole and they were caught.”
Duane Moody
“Could you tell us the extent of the monies stolen?”
Via Phone: Lawrence Sylvester
“End of story. Funds were obtained fraudulently, it was discovered, he was confronted, he was caught. We have recovered a significant portion of the loss and we are currently in pursuit of every administrative, criminal and civil procedure available to us to recover the balance and to lead to his dismissal. End of story, over and out.”
Just recently, over seven thousand dollars were drawn from the Southern Regional Hospital in three cheques. The administrator, Nasley Sommerville, was accused of the missing funds and she was subsequently removed from the post. At the time, there were a hundred and eighty-nine cheques that were unaccounted for. The matter was also reported to the police by C.E.O. in the Ministry of Health, Doctor Peter Allen.
And the thieving udp gov continues when the hell will you sorry @$$ belizeans wake up and lock up this pm and his gov. It will never stop they have shown they are traitors and thieves.
Is there an end to the dishonesty that has settled on this country. This is like a nightmare that you can’t wake up from. Which government agency will be next to uncover the thievery. I don’t understand Finnegan’s part in this. Did he encourage the employee to sign the documents? If so he is guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice.
My grandmother would go in and pay on her land taxes and on whatever she had to pay at housing and she would get a receipt and when she go back to pay again they would tell her she was behind on her payments. She would show her receipt they would tell her that they do not have any record of that payment. We were in the US and she was a Senior woman having to take care of her business on her own., they robbed her blind.
I am waiting for the next segment to this ongoing saga of dishonesty. They all need to spend time in prison for what they have done to the country and the people, for the disgrace that has befallen the country in the eyes of the world. This PM should be ashamed to show his face anywhere representing this country. He is a communistic dictator hiding behind the honest cloak of democracy.
Isn’t it funny how even when the low life thiefin’ office clerks get involved in acts of dishonesty the PM gets blamed for it?
To some of us the only color we see is BLUE. That, is what we should be ashamed of.
at the end of the day, the entire situation is totally unfair! poor public officers are under scrutiny, for a measly $7000, cops hunt him down like a murderer. However, the bigger heads are making unknown ammount of $, and no police officers chasing down any of these big fish.
Judging by how quick they uncovered this one, why is it taking almost 2 months to commence formal inquiry into the penner/immigration scandal. Belizeans need to demand more! Suh keep yuh one pung snapper. Da di big fish i wa kech!!!!!!!!