Email

Print

Daniel Cano, Former Executive Director - SIF
"Mr. Smart, you have made many, many false accusations about me which has hurt me, which has hurt my family and that place that I have work and that I have loved for 14 years. I categorically deny these allegations and I demand that you retract each and every one of your false statements and you apologize for the damage you have done to me, to my good name, to my career that I have work so hard to build and for the pain you have caused my family."

"My statement now is to strongly reaffirm that I had no involvement in any acts of bribery, corruption, extortion or any such acts. To provide some facts around my resignation and my work at SIF and to clarify some of the unfair speculation that has aired over the past week. My resignation from the post of Executive Director of the Social Investment Fund was requested and I agreed to submit it on the basis on the findings of the Contractor Generals' report where my management of the allegations was found to be less than desirable. My resignation was not on the grounds of any involvement with bribery, corruption or extortion."

Jules Vasquez
"I have to ask you straight up about the specific allegation made by Mr. Smart in an email that he wrote to the Contractor General which contains statements that he supported with documentary evidence. In that particular March email he implicated certain staff members who received cheques and he had proof of those cheques. In that same email he said that he gave you $11,000; $10,000 cash in a plastic bag at a specific street and $1,000 in cash at your office. Are those allegations true?"

Daniel Cano, Former Executive Director - SIF
"The allegations made against me are not true. Yes he might be able to describe in great detail what he did, what he says he did, but that doesn't make it true. And just because you have evidence of some other payments to mixed in along with the allegations against me, that doesn't make it true."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, at what point were you aware of the complaints that he made that persons in your office were "shaking him down" and what actions did you take at that time?"

Daniel Cano, Former Executive Director - SIF
"In terms of the "shake down" - I would say if I can recall - it perhaps was earlier this year. He was having difficulty with the Santa Elena Library and our officers were strict."

Jules Vasquez
"That "shake down" is not strictness. He says he gave you cheque stubs, which indicate that he had made and I guess, had to make payments to officers at SIF. When you received those what actions did you take?"

Daniel Cano
"I never received any cheque stubs. He said he gave me cheque stubs way back in 2010 or 2009, I don't know when he said. I never received any. I can tell you that on April 3rd of this year he found me. He was not even home. I don't even know how he found me, but he found me on the side of a street and attempted to give me a package which he said here are the stubs. This was now after he has written emails, after the allegations have been made to the Contractor General and now he is trying to hand me something which he say are stubs. I did not look in the package. I did not even take the package. I don't know what was in that package. I have an opinion about what he might have been trying to do which I am not going to share because that's speculation, but he never gave me any stubs and he attempted to give me something this year."

Love FM Reporter
"At no time did you have any meeting with Mr. Smart to discuss these allegations?"

Daniel Cano
"He had implied to me way back in 2010 that he had some officers under his payroll if you will and he gave me specific names and its the same four officers and he told me that he had evidence. I ask him for the evidence - I didn't want to approach the officers without any evidence. He never produced any, but I still met with the officers and it doesn't only me that met with the officers. There were other members of management that met with the officers. We questioned them about this and some of them admitted that they had taken payment from him and they provided various reasons; some of them were gifts. Some of them were just thankfulness for their work that they had done."

"The amounts that have been provided conflict with what the Contractor General actually found out later on in most of the cases."

Jules Vasquez
"The conflicts were lesser or greater."

Daniel Cano
"When they were told to me they were lesser."

Jules Vasquez
"You know that this is unacceptable. You have a policy for gifts at SIF. Gifts have to declared and shared."

Daniel Cano
"After that we established a policy because of this incident. That was one of the measure we took."

"I will say that we met with the officers, we cautioned them strongly. We told them if anything like this ever happens again we will go to the board."

Love FM Reporter
"That warning was issued?"

Daniel Cano
"Right, and I concede. Looking back in retrospect - hindsight is 20/20 - that was a mistake I made. That was one of the main management decisions that I made wrongly. I will justify it and I will take responsibility for it, but I will say that it was a decision made of the information that I had at the time."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, Mr. Smart had been a problematic contractor for some time at the Gullissi Primary School in Dangriga - problems have arisen with him, yet he continued to receive contracts. Is that because he was a UDP friend? Was there any sort of executive influence to say he is the guy to go with or might it have been because he had help on the inside? Did Mr. Smart have insider information based on the corrupt influence that he enjoyed by offering people what is called is the corruption of public life "an advantage" which is a bribe?"

Daniel Cano
"To my knowledge, no, but I don't know every single dealings that happen between every single employee and contractor. To my knowledge, no."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, at what point did Mr. Smart who he is, a UDP. I can say that because he offered himself in a convention. At what point did he start appearing as a contractor that was on SIF's radar? I can't imagine that it happened during the PUP's administration."

Daniel Cano
"His first contract would have been perhaps late 2008."

Jules Vasquez
"So, then in his accent or his emergence as a contractor of choice or a contractor that could be chosen - he got about 6-7 contracts, did that have anything to do with executive influence from the UDP who was in government then? Might the minister with responsibility at the time Erwin Contreras have said look favorably on Mr. Smart. I know that Mr. Contreras also use to send hams to SIF office at Christmas time as just a kindness."

Daniel Cano
"I cannot recall Mr. Contreras ever saying look favorably at Mr. Smart. Even if any other minister had said look favorably at Mr. Smart - the procedures still had to be followed. We can't go outside the procedures. Once we go outside the procedures and it goes to the Contractor General they will send it back, it goes to the bank they will send it back. It will not go."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, in your opinion should you all have been accepting Christmas gifts from a hardware company? Or Christmas hams from the relevant minister?"

Daniel Cano
"I really can't give an opinion on that. It's a practice that had been there years before when we instituted the gift policy, we decided that this is being declared and it not something being hidden, so it's not something that we feel that had to be discontinued at that point."

Love FM Reporter
"Was there ever an opportunity when the minister would make a request that ultimately that contractor would not be awarded the contract?"

Daniel Cano
"There were many instances like that yes. I will say yes that there were request and that is the job of a minister; to lobby for his constituents. It is our job to follow the rules. Ministers can ask for whatever they want, but we have to follow the rules."

Jules Vasquez
"Were the rules scrupulously followed without regard to the minister's influence?"

Daniel Cano
"The rules had to be followed. There was no other way."

Cano also addressed the issue that we raised last night; the allegation that he had basically doctored a receipt from K & G Construction to pay Emy Ramirez a payment she was insistent on getting. Cano explained that he was only trying to help:..

Daniel Cano
"The invoice referred to yesterday arose when the financers had inform SIF that they were in dire needs of a payment due to the large amount of funds they had put into the project. An invoice was presented by Mr. Smart with many errors that could not be paid. In his claim for payment were items he had not completed. There were items that were paid for before and items that he had just not done."

"This invoice could not be process and he could not be found to resubmit it. Mrs. Ramirez was authorized by Mr. Smart to sign claims for payment on his company behalf and authorize to collect monies on his company's behalf. In SIF efforts to process a payment I ask Mrs. Ramirez to sign an invoice which was adjusted the amount the consultant certified could be paid. She even asks that the invoice could further be redone to provide a breakdown of the amount being paid. This was done. She then signed and then changed her mind about submitting the invoice. This is perfectly within her right and that at no time was she pressured to sign. She was only asked to sign because she was authorized to do so and in the interest of processing what was certified at the time."

Jules Vasquez
"You said you adjusted it internally? Adjusting at some point becomes forgery."

Daniel Cano
"The amount that Mr. Smart has claimed as I said was riddled with errors and the claim was just so unrealistic and false. We processed a payment in accordance with the procedures up to the point of where we came to this invoice. Mr. Smart was nowhere to be found. Mrs. Ramirez was authorized to sign the invoice. The amount was changed to what the consultants certify and she was asked to sign as she was authorized to do and she did even sign. She actually signs, in fact she had us redo the invoice to show further detail and we did it at her request."

Jules Vasquez
"Yes but you are redoing the invoice in a company's name."

Daniel Cano
"She is authorizing us."

Jules Vasquez
"Was SIF authorized? Were you authorized to use the letterhead of a private company?"

Daniel Cano
"I will concede. Again, another instance of in acting with good intentions, in good faith in trying to expedite this payment in the interest of the project - yes an error was committed."

The press conference finished close to our deadline this evening, on a busy news night - and there were many more revelations coming out of it - and we'll have more from the event tomorrow.