7 News Belize

OW Farmers Angry About Audit Revelations
posted (July 21, 2014)
And earlier this month, we told you how some of the employees of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers swindled the association of approximately $78,000 dollars.

As we reported, an audit of the association's finances revealed that one of the supervisors had been paying herself and other employees' bonuses on each pay cheque.

It was quite a lucrative scheme, and they got away with it for over a year, until it was revealed by a spot-check audit.

Yesterday, the management of the cane farmers association revealed the details to those 910 cane farmers, and they were understandably upset that they had been ripped off by their own:

Alfredo Ortega - Vice-Chair, COM, BSCFA
"In any place whenever funds are misused it is not taken lightly by the members. I think that we have come with a clear presentation to them based on the audit report that we have. There will always be people who will jump here and there based on certain things that are there, but we are coming clear to them. We are not hiding anything. We have presented the names of the people who were involved and what we are looking forward to is to recuperate the funds that were not used properly from these people who are involved in the situation."

Daniel Ortiz
"How much have you recovered and how much more is necessary?"

Alfredo Ortega - Vice-Chair, COM, BSCFA
"I think we have recovered in the vicinity of $6,000, so we need to recover about $72,000 to complete the $78,000."

Reporter
"We understand that three of the employees have already repaid their share of what was stolen, and the other three have yet to do so?"

Alfredo Ortega - Vice-Chair, COM, BSCFA
"Yes. We have three of them who have already repaid. It was the smaller numbers in the audit report. So three of them have cleared their names and there are others who have already committed to how they will be paying. It's only three persons that legal action will be taken upon them."

Daniel Ortiz
"Does that absolve them of all wrongdoing? Are they forgiven? Are they fired? What's their status?"

Alfredo Ortega - Vice-Chair, COM, BSCFA
"Well they have been fired from the organization based on the lawyer's advice. We have fired these people and legal action will be taken against them."

Because of the revelation, the cane farmers association is on a 6 month probation with Flow Cert, the body that oversees compliance with Fair Trade Standards. Flow Cert is in charge of auditing the BSCFA's books to ensure that there is proper accountability. It is an oversight body related to Fair Trade - which sends the premium of $60 dollars per tonne of sugar cane. This audit of financial irregularities which exposed these paycheque scheme has repercussions for the farmers because it is treated as an act of non-compliance, for which a suspension is in order.

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