7 News Belize

It Doesn't Add Up
posted (July 16, 2009)

And now the administration at the Belize City Council is also awaiting the outcome of a police investigation into so – called “under-deposits” at City Hall. As we’ve told you, the government appointed financial regulator Patrick Tillet who was sent from Belmopan basically to keep a hawk’s eye on Mayor Moya has reported to police that he believes 27 thousand dollars missing from the deposits in the month of April 2009 was lost to theft. The council’s Financial Controller Dwain Davis has since provided Tillet with a folder full of documents purporting to account for the discrepancy.

As Davis explained, that $27,000 was lost to what he called “under-deposits” where cash – tens of thousands of dollars of it – was taken from the council’s deposits to cover the expenses which were either urgent or could not be paid by check because council’s account was so low that checks could not be written. That explanation seemed not to have won over Financial Regulator Tillet who told us that he has not withdrawn his police complaint. But Tillet would not discuss the merit of the documents presented to him by Davis.

But 7News has learned from multiple credible sources that what the Mayor laid out in all that paperwork might not add up. Our sources suggest that some of the documents presented to the media and by extension to Tillet were not receipts for payments made but in fact, they were quotations – in some cases for purchases that were never made.

Also of note is that while the financial regulator is looking at the numbers, so is the audit department. The mayor has said she eagerly awaits the outcome of their investigation which will vindicate her finance team. But other sources suggest to us that the audit department is probing hundreds of thousands of dollars in under-deposits. Again, those issues are up in the air, but the police investigation with direction from the DPP’s office, continues.

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