Last night we told you about the audit into alleged irregularities with a BDF Jungle Training Program for the German Army. The Ministry of Defense asked the Auditor General to investigate the program after it appeared that Lieutenant Colonel Charlton Roches had conflicts: our information says he was the BDF Assigned Liaison Officer for the German jungle training in 2015, 2016, and 2017 - and he is also the majority shareholder in a company called Belize Jungle Experience which was contracted to provide logistical support to that same German contingent in the summer of 2016.
The Germans were here to get jungle training from the BDF - but Roches appears to have positioned his company - to get a lucrative 150 thousand dollar contract.
The Auditor General notes that Belize Jungle Experience was supposedly a real estate company, but yet it was providing military logistics support. The auditor general says, quote, "it has no business providing (those) services."
Our investigation shows that the company had not done an annual filing at the Companies Register since it was formed in 2013, yet it was still doing big business with the BDF and the Germans.
We have only seen a small, leaked preliminary part of the audit, but we know that the auditors are looking at Roches's double role as the BDF staff assigned to assist the German delegation and deploy BDF resources, while at the same time having a private company which was also providing logistical support. We know from our sources that BDF vehicles, drivers, and fuel were used for food resupply and other needs. The Auditor is now looking into what role Belize Jungle Experience played in also providing logistical support.
Our information suggests that there were multiple areas of fraudulent representation dealing with the German contingent of 2016, including the BDF taking a hefty retainer to have helicopters on 24 hour standby when the BDF helicopters weren't operational in June 2016. Our sources say the that the German's total payment to the BDF is around $800,000 Belize dollars. We'll keep following the story.
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