7 News Belize

Rosado Foundation Board Rebutts
posted (July 18, 2014)
As you've heard, the allegations he's made against Dr. Rosado are very serious. So, we held off on airing them yesterday because we want to get a response from Dr. Rosado himself.

That came by way of a press conference called by the entire Board of the Ariel Rosado Memorial Education Foundation. Backed by his colleagues Dr. Rosado fielded all questions and responded to the wholesale accusations of financial mismanagement and misappropriation.

Here's what he said about those cheques that Sanchez Sr. showed the press:

Dr. Alvaro Rosado - President, Board of Dir., Ariel Rosado Foundation
"The cheque that Mr. Sanchez showed, if I remembered right he showed two cheques; one cheque was made out to Miss Shelly Bradley. Ms. Shelly Bradly is the secretary for the Belize Sailing Association and we were required to get life jackets for the sailors that are on our scholarships. Ms. Bradley, because of her knowledge of sailing agreed to purchase the life jackets for us. When I took the cheque to the Sanchez's for her the Friday to get the jackets the Friday for the sailing session on Saturday, Mr. Sanchez refused to sign the cheque. I gave Ms. Bradley my personal cheque for $252.00 so that she could purchase life jackets. After we were able to get a foundation cheque signed I took the cheque to Ms. Bradley who endorsed it and I deposit it into my account to replace the monies that I have given them. The second cheque that Mr. Sanchez showed was in the amount of $500.00. That is fact is only one of 5 such cheques that were written over the 18 months. The 5 cheques were all for $500.00. All were made out to Alvarado Rosado, they were all approved by the board for the replenishment for the petty cash account that I manage. That petty cash account is to use for everyday expenses; computer cartridges, paper, whatever small items we need to buy."

"When we formed the foundation my wife and I invited the Sanchez's to become signatories to the bank account and we insisted that the way it would be setup would be that one Rosado and one Sanchez would sign. After Mr. Sanchez refuse to sign cheques to pay for the legitimate expenses of the foundation my wife and I discuss the matter, other board members might have been involved in those discussions and we decided to try a cheque with the bank to see since there were two main signatories as the way I saw it; it was Alvaro Rosado or Dorla Rosado and Bruce Sanchez Jr. or Bruce Sanchez Sr. - we decided to see if the bank would honor a cheque with the two Rosado signatures. The bank honored the first that was signed. The first cheque that was signed was two months overdue and it was overdue to Smiling Meats for 300 plates of barbeque that had been provided for the first annual ride we had in April. We sent that cheque to the bank and the bank accepted the cheque and honored it. Since then every cheque that we had to sign was taken to the Sanchez. I personally took the cheques and was humiliated and embarrassed on many occasions when Bruce Sanchez Jr. would look at me and say that he is not signing that. My wife and I after several attempt to get a cheque sign would the sign the cheques and submit it to the bank. So the 13 cheques that Mr. Sanchez is referring to; there are 13 cheques that were amounted to $13, 0055.00 if I am right. Those cheques were all made out to either a bookstore or a school to pay tuition for students. The only two cheques that were not so made out were the cheque to Ms. Shelley Bradley and the cheque to replenish the petty cash account."

Another major grievance of coming from the Sanchez camp is that when the organization was registered in Belmopan, it was done so as the Ariel Rosado Education Foundation. Well, since this dispute between the Sanchez and Rosado Families has unfolded internally, the Board has created another entity and registered it as a company in Belmopan as the Ariel Rosado Scholarship Fund.

Sanchez has described that to the press as yet another attempt by Dr. Alvaro Rosado to circumvent the proper usage of the funds solicited for the scholarship, and as a means of solidifying his "non-democratic" control over the organization.

Today, Dr. Rosado responded to that by explaining that Sanchez is being disingenuous. He and his other colleagues on the board said that the Scholarship Fund organization was created when Sanchez tried to cripple the board:

Sal Awe - Secretary, Ariel Rosado Foundation Board
"Administratively the work of the foundation had to continue with a situation where the account that was being used to run the everyday expenses was out of our reach. The bank has decided to make sure that no other cheques were being written under. We still had scholarships to pay for, expenses for the ride, so the board made a decision to open a secondary account in a different bank - got the same sort of arrangement where it wouldn't be both Rosado signing, it had to be one Rosado or either myself of Mr. Swift that would sign on those cheques and we continue the work of the foundation. Administratively, if two of the 4 signatories to the original account were no longer signing, it was either the organization folds or we do what have to do so that the work could continue and that essentially what was done."

Dr. Alvaro Rosado
"Any kind of business person with a savvy as to what these things mean, but I have learnt a lot and I have learnt now what I shouldn't have done and what I should have done is to agree to register the name of the foundation with anybody else. Mr. Sanchez is very savvy about business and he was the one who led us down that path and said I am prepared to go to Belmopan personally and I will pay the $25 to register it in the 4 of our names. He want to Belmopan and he registered it just the name. I was not aware of what that meant. I now realize that what it means is that the Sanchez's owned half of the Ariel Rosado Foundation of the name and whatever assets there are. So that was the original, when they started to boycott us and they physically withdrew themselves, as the secretary said we had to go on and having learnt from the experience we registered the Ariel Rosado Scholarship Fund as an incorporated body with all the rules and guidelines as to how a business should function; who are the officers, who makes decisions and so on and that is how we are operating the scholarship fund. The sole purpose of the scholarship fund is to manage the funds for the Arial Rosado Foundation. The Ariel Rosado Scholarship Fund does not solicit funds nor does it award scholarships - it's on to the foundation to manage the funds collective."

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