At the top of the news you heard Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley say that he will run for another term as mayor. But just three months before the election he did something that you wouldn't quite expect: he released the just completed audit for the fiscal year ending 31st March. That's got all the council's financial affairs rolled up into one document - and things being what they are, you might not expect to find accounts that are rosy or robust. But the mayor says he had no reservation about releasing it even on the verge of an election:..
Darrell Bradley, Mayor - Belize City
"We want members of the public to criticize us. We want members of the public to be able to review analytically what's going on at the city council. We want members of the public to say Mayor, are you paying your bills? Are you able to meet the municipal bond obligations? Are you able to deal with this BML situation comfortably because that is part of leadership. It is part of good government. People have said Mayor, one of the things you shouldn't do is stop give interviews and I have said no, it is an obligation and duty of an elected official to answer every and any questions that is put to them that has to do with their office because I am accountable to the people and when we do our audit, the audit shows that we are truly committed to this vision of transparency and accountability. I remember the first audit that we did. It was a qualify audit. They didn't clear us, they said that the accounts of the city council had many difficulties and the management report was fought with challenges that we had. We've faced all of those things and the first thing that I had indicated is make that public on our website. The minutes of all council meetings are on our website. Our monthly financial statements are all there. Our tax are all there and now this audit which is our 3rd independent audit will be out there, so that members of the public can look at what's going on in here, so that nobody could say that Darrell Bradley do any under deposit, or Darrell Bradley do any craziness or so and they can have confidence in our abilities to discharge our functions."
As the mayor noted, the audit will be posted on the Council's website. You can find a link to that at 7Newsbelize.com
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