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But what is the NICH side of the story? Today, after weeks of trying to get a comment, we got a chance to ask the NICH President Diane Haylock and the Director of the Institute of Archaeology Dr. John Morris about it. We caught them at another event in Benque Viejo and here's how Morris explained the approach to the contract:..

Dr. John Morris, Dir. institute of Archaeology
"We were asked our opinion as to whether or not there can be touring in the caves and our opinion is yes you can tours. You do tours in many caves here in this country. That then is submitted to the board of directors on NICH."

Jules Vasquez
"At any time you become aware that in order to access these caves, you'd have to trespass on Michael Modiri's property?"

Dr. John Morris, Dir. institute of Archaeology
"No. Because all the lands papers that were given to us showed that he had access to this property. In fact in fact I think the first 9 miles literally ran through his property and then skirting one of the hills that he has to go on Modiri's property - that was in the 66 foot range of roads. We also received from the Ministry of works that this is a road access. Now you don't particular question the other agency in government, if they tell you this is a road access and they show you a document that says a road access has been granted, who am I to say no."

Jules Vasquez
"But there is the other grief that Brad Paumen, being in partnership with NICH has been given unfair advantages that he does not face the same level of monitoring as the local guides and that you all at NICH are basically working for the man - that you all are vendor petrous, country sellers."

Diane Haylock, President - NICH
"Jules, what does Boots does say that check your change and listen to the noise in the market. I think that people needs to do that. We have an agreement with Paumen. That site is not something that is visited every day. The primary time that it is visited is during the days that we have cruise ships in Belize and on the days that we have the cruise ship visitors, our staff go out there and they are there to monitor. In fact Mr. Paumen I have to say has been perhaps one of the best operators in terms of making his payments and making them to time."

Jules Vasquez
"But does NICH have active oversight of how many guests are coming in? Because one gets the impression he is policing himself."

Diane Haylock, President - NICH
"On the days that there are ships and he has visitors that he is taking to the sites, there is a presence there."

Jules Vasquez
"Now, the other allegation and we have seen this, is that the local operators, the local tour guides faced a certain level of scrutiny from meeting standards which the foreign operators namely Chukka and Dark Night don't face on a consistent sustained basis as though the Yhonny's, the Tom Greenwood's, Almendarez...."

Diane Haylock, President - NICH
"Jules that is absolutely not true. In fact those operators they follow the rules much more rigidly, because they have a lot of contracts with the international cruise organizations and so they have to fulfil the standards of those entities."

Dr. John Morris, Dir. institute of Archaeology
"If you read the Memorandum of Understanding, ` it is simply that we are allowing you to use two caves and you need to pay us $10 per person who entered that cave."

Jules Vasquez
"With no specific provision for oversight though, for enforcement and oversight of how the $10 is collected?"

Dr. John Morris, Dir. institute of Archaeology
"No. But we don't do that for any site. That's a fee that you pay us."

Jules Vasquez
"Yeah, but it depends on him to tell you how much he collected?"

Dr. John Morris, Dir. institute of Archaeology
"No. There is a ranger stationed at the entrance of those sites that takes the numbers of people who go in."

Jules Vasquez
"What we have seen and maybe I was looking at the wrong days, but what we saw was they were nor enforce across the board - that they were enforced on the local operators, but those who have their own set up Chukka and Dark Night did not get that level of scrutiny of enforcement from NICH. That's what we saw."

Diane Haylock, President - NICH
"Jules, I am not there on the ground, so I cannot say categorically that that is so. I know what the mandate of our staff is and it is certainly something that I would speak with at the Institute of Archeology personnel about. But our staff have an obligation to enforce the rules across the board."

And while the fellows at FECTAB will surely continue to insist that there's not uniform enforcement across the board, what about the bigger issue of going into business with someone who stands accused of a very serious crime? We asked President Haylock about that:...

Jules Vasquez
"Do you regret stepping into a commercial arrangement with Dark Night?"

Diane Haylock, President - NICH
"Jules, I can't say that I regret it. There are some charges against Mr. Paumen. Mr. Paumen is innocent until proven guilty. If there comes a time that this man is found guilty, then we will have to look at what we do in terms of the relationship that we have with him. It is a company. The company is bigger than Mr. Paumen and we have I think it is a 3 year contract and within that contract, that contract is subject to review at any given time within that period. So, if the need arises for that contract to be ended, the contract allows us to be able to do that."

Tomorrow, we'll have Morris's comments about permitting Dark Night to do zip line tours in the caves.