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And, from the feedback we've gotten, Cano did what he had set out to do: those we've spoken were convinced by the quite appealing logic that someone who took a bribe would not have an hour long - no holds barred press conference. Tonight we look deeper into his disclosures, which he made freely, because as he said, he has nothing to hide:..

Daniel Cano, Former Executive Director - SIF
"I am here because I have nothing to hide. I have performed my duties at SIF to the best of my professional abilities and with always the best intentions."

Jules Vasquez reporting
But in the battlefield called SIF the best intentions weren't good enough - and Cano admits that he fell short of maintaining the highest standards:

Daniel Cano
"This is true, I was involve in the said instance of work outside of SIF where a family friend of mine for many years had ask that I check on his the construction of his home from time to time and I did receive compensation from him for this."

"Taking outside work is not a normal practice for me and this finding that I did this has been out of proportion."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, you and Mr. Smart worked on the same private project. The Contractor General found out that Mr. Smart was the contractor for this home, Mr. Cal's home and you were retained as the supervising engineer. What were your interactions with Mr. Smart there?"

Daniel Cano
"In terms of my interactions with Mr. Smart on the private project, it was very limited."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, while knowing the rules of declarations that employees who take side work had to make a declaration to you. Why did you not make a declaration to the board of directors?"

Daniel Cano
"In retrospect I should have."

And while that was a violation of the rules, it was not corrupt:

Daniel Cano
"My statement now is to strongly reaffirm that I had no involvement in any acts of bribery, corruption, extortion or any such acts. The allege corruption was outside my control. I could only have minimized the repercussions but not suppress it. These allegations would have still been exposed to the public in any scenario."

But it's not the exposure - it's the damage to the institution, which started off with helping along questionable contractors like Kennard Smart - who, the contractor general suggests may have had insider to qualify for the Dangriga Market:

Jules Vasquez
"Might he have had insider information to know how much to bid on projects and exactly how much he would need to put down to bid? Because I understand that his bids would match the final requirement extremely close."

Daniel Cano
"Mr. Smart would bid usually the engineer's estimate."

Jules Vasquez
"Did Mr. Smart had insider information based on the corrupt influence that he enjoyed by offering people what is call in the corruption in 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."

The Contractor General says the SIF Board should make, quote, "A detailed examination of the evaluation process for the awarding of the Dangriga Market…Project with a view to establishing whether or not the contract was awarded impartially".

But even with all the questions about this one project, Cano denies that there was a culture of corruption at SIF:

Daniel Cano
"There has never been anything like this where a contractor has come out and alleges this level of extortion and corruption. Never before, never. In the hundreds of projects SIF has done this is the first time."

But it's not the first time Kennard Smart has been behind in trouble on a contract:

Daniel Cano
"I will say that SIF bent backwards sometimes in trying to complete a project, not so much for Mr. Smart's benefit. If there is a school there, the school year is coming and we need to push, make a payment every week to have this contractor limp across the finish line, we did that in the interest of getting the project completed."

"To our detriment perhaps we have allowed weak contractors to continued finishing projects and continue qualifying. Now in retrospect, this is something that maybe SIF would have to re-examine - how far do we want to keep holding people's hands especially if they are so weak that they will jeopardize the institution."

And as long as Smart kept finishing projects, even if he, quote "limped across the finish line" he continued to qualify for contracts - possibly aided by insider information:

Reporter, Love FM
"If you have been having an issue with him, why would you give him another project to work on?"

Daniel Cano
"As I said the qualification criteria is objective. It does not speak to "do you have an issue." It speaks to "did he finish" and in cases where we were facilitating small payments every week we helped him to finish. He finished, he qualified."

And Smart even attracted investors, who, Cano says, were not unaware of Smart's difficulties:

Daniel Cano
"How was the financer's money being used? The financers themselves told SIF that some of the labour monies they provided to the contractor were unaccounted for and that within what they listed as expenses were payments to the banks to release the contractor form the bank. These are not funds that went into the market site. Whose responsibility was it to safeguard the financer's investments and to use the monies properly on site?"

"According to one of the financers they had put in over $400,000 by mid-August of this year. However, the work completed on site as measured by the consultant and SIF did not even value a quarter of this. Where did the rest of the money go?"

Which is the question most pressingly being asked by the residents of Dangriga and the market vendors who continue to lose money.

Cano - who is a UWI trained Engineer - worked at SIF for 14 years, and held the Director's post from 2010 to 2013. He told us that he resigned in the middle of a two year contract, and he did not get any gratuity.