Defense Ministry Audit Reaches Critical Stage

The investigation into the Ministry of Defense procurement scandal has reached a turning point. The Auditor General says the first report is now complete, but Belizeans will not see the findings immediately. The ministry must first get a chance to answer the issues raised in the audit. Now that today’s deadline has arrived, the focus turns to the ministry’s response and when the full findings will be made public. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Auditors have spent weeks digging through the Ministry of Defense’s procurement records as they investigate allegations of conflicts of interest. They reviewed Smart Stream transactions and supporting financial documents, interviewed key individuals and visited locations connected to vendors under scrutiny. That work was expected to produce an initial report today, focused specifically on the conflict-of-interest allegations.

 

“Our first report was finalized for this end of month.”

 

According to Auditor General Maria Rodriquez, the report itself has already been completed. However, completion of the findings does not mean the audit process is over.

 

“The audit process entails a presentation of findings and recommendations to the CEO. Then the report is printed and dispatched to the CEO for a response.”

 

Before auditors formally release the report, they must first sit down with Chief Executive Officer Francis Usher to present their findings and recommendations. That meeting, known as an exit interview, gives the ministry a chance to review the concerns and submit its response before the report becomes official.

 

“We obtained a date from the CEO to discuss our first report”

 

The Auditor General says a date has already been set for that meeting. Investigators have moved past collecting evidence and are now testing their findings against management’s version of events. Back in early September, Auditor General Rodriquez explained the process in an interview with News Five.

 

Maria Rodriquez, Auditor General

“What will happen at the end of September is that we will have an exit meeting with the Chief Executive Officer to inform him of what has been found. He will be given a week or two, depends on what he says, to respond, and thereafter the report goes to the Financial Secretary for his further submission if he sees fit to Cabinet Secretary and the Minister of Finance.”

 

The Auditor General’s office says the process has advanced, but CEO Usher’s comments today painted a different picture.

 

“The audit is still ongoing and is in the interview phase.”

 

While Usher described the investigation as still being in its interview phase, Rodriquez indicated that the report’s findings had already been finalized and were awaiting the next procedural step.

 

“I have not seen a correspondence with a request for that interview as yet, but I will check with my office”

 

Usher says that if auditors have requested an exit interview, the notice has not reached him. For the public, however, the bigger question is whether companies linked to ministry officials benefited improperly from government contracts. That answer is expected after the ministry responds and auditors finalize the report. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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