Leader of the Opposition says no excuse to appropriate public monies

Francis Fonseca

That was the PM in the House on Wednesday. He maintains that there were only three questionable checks, but the truth is that there were a lot more than that. BAA board member, Lindsay Garbutt, confirmed to News Five in an interview that various checks to Bowen and Bowen were used to pay for political events hosted by Castro. He also confirmed that there were various checks used to pay persons politically connected to Castro. He called those payments assistance to communities. And while the Prime Minister spoke about one check to assist with burial expenses for Edmond Castro’s mother, there was another paid in directly to the funeral home, for a total of almost ten thousand dollars. While P.U.P. leader Francis Fonseca expressed sympathy for Castro’s loss, he says that was no excuse to appropriate public monies.

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Francis Fonseca, P.U.P. Leader

“The reality is that there are at least seventy-six cheques which demonstrate as we have said a pattern of abuse and misuse, man—either directly to Castro or on behalf of him or members of his family or for political interests. I never said that all the cheques were made out to Castro. I said they were for him or for the benefits of members of his family or for political activities in Belize Rural North. Mr. Castro did not refute any of the other cheques. He tried to defend and he spent a lot of time talking about his mother’s funeral expenses. We obviously sympathize with him. I lost my mother last year. So I know how that feels. But the Belize Airports Authority is not to pay for anybody’s mother’s funeral, that’s the bottom line. Regardless of how sympathetic we are to Mr. Castro about that matter…he missed the point completely. The BAA is not there to deal with these matters; it is not there to pay for people’s school tuition; it’s not there to pay for any barbeque in Belize Rural North. That is not the purpose of the Belize Airports Authority funds man. So that is the fundamental point that he missed.”