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This chain link fence at the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga spans about 400 feet by 600 feet. It's massive and those in the construction business tell us - a structure like this would cost as much as a hundred thousand dollars.

Area residents tell us work on the fence started in January of this year - and it finished in March. But according to the former CEO who issued the contract for it to fund the erection of the fence - the repairs came out of this contract which was issued on March 14th 2024, a 48,000 dollar contract to repair the roof and dredge the drains.

Martinez provided us this contract and explained how the scope of works changed:

Dr Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Economic Transformation
"So for example in the, that fence that was built for, in the project for Dangriga. There was, there was an issue that they were having with squatters, and we have a recorded request from the Ministry of, of Health on that one where the Ministry of Health asked that instead of doing the the roof and the drainage that was to be done - which the drainage was a leech for black blackwaters - that behind the hospital, you know, they're having some issues with squatters."

"The Ministry of Natural Resources had to re-survey the area for the ministry, for the hospital, of which then, they said, you know what, we will build a fence. Instead of doing that. The fence is right here and built and it can be seen."

Indeed, it can be seen - but the timeline, not so clearly. How could the fence be finished by mid March when the contract that Martinez says funded it came into effect in mid March? And to date the roof has not received any repairs - and we didn't see any drain. Martinez says the scope of works can changed very easily:

Dr Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Economic Transformation
"And it is on the purview of the government to change the scope of the projects. As long as it well discussed and it is right in line with the, with the investment."

Jules Vasquez:
"It sounds like you are improvising and using your own discretion or the project manager's discretion, whoever's discretion. You are doing discretionary improvisation when there's public funds have been contracted and earmarked for specific things."

Dr Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Economic Transformation
"No, you could always - there is variation and and is within the Constitution, Jules. And that is completely fine."

Of course there's no such provision within the constitution - but to make a fence like this from a contract of this size would require some kind of magic:

Dr Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Economic Transformation
"Who will be upset because you are doing more?"

Jules Vasquez:
"Yeah, but how do you ensure that there is equivalency in the value for money? Once you start improvising on a discretionary basis, then, you know, you start to say, well, actually they don't need a sidewalk. They need a bench. A bench cost $100, a sidewalk cost $500."

Dr Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Economic Transformation
"Or it could be vice versa."

But where did the money come from? This document provided to us by the Ministry of Finance under a FOIA request says that the funds were disbursed from a supplementary approved for capital improvement to buildings and facilities. It de-reserves 48 thousand dollars for this project on March 8th - again by that time the fence was already finished.

The recipient of the contract was Savana Construction in Bella Vista - chosen form among three bids according to this document.

But the transaction was flagged after a review at the Toledo Teachers Credit Union.

Leopoldo Romero, General Manager, Toledo Teachers Credit Union
"The contract started way back in February, in last year. When we terminated these people we looked at these accounts as well and we found out that the contracts in the files were incomplete. I had a meeting with Dr Osmond Martinez and explained to him and he promised to email me the contracts. Now I did not receive that email the way he placed it that he was at the meeting when on the screen he saw that I received the email. That is not so. The contracts came on the 15th of August; these contracts were issued back in February and March so originally they would have brought the signed contracts. But because of the collusion the contractor who is involved here, is a close family to the branch manager and so there was the collusion where they accepted these contracts as they were and then why until after the fact you are going to send me contracts that are then signed?"

Those we spoke to told us that the scope of works on a government contract cannot just be changed "willy nilly". And, in fact the constitution he referred to says, quote, "No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the Fund…or where the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an appropriation law..."