At press time tonight, the board of directors of the Social Security Board (SSB) was meeting at its Belize City office, amid reports that Chief Executive Officer Merlene Bailey-Martinez, who had been put on administrative leave last month, had returned to work today, despite a board decision last week that she should be terminated.
There were also reports today that the CEO had been seen in the work-issued Toyota Prado, and that she had logged in to work. One government director we spoke with to query the report said that Bailey-Martinez had retained access to the Prado, but that director said he didn’t think the report of her accessing the SSB’s system or going to the office is true.
Amandala has not yet gotten an official board statement since this evening’s meeting, which we understand continued into tonight.
Deputy Chairman of SSB, Dennis Jones, this afternoon declined to get into specifics until today’s meeting is over.
Last week, we reported that a majority of the SSB board had voted to terminate Bailey-Martinez, following a special audit by Pannell Kerr Forster into allegations that she and her staff were trying to unfairly benefit in a government-initiated mortgage write-off program.
Oddly, Bailey-Martinez’s name appeared on the write-off list after she was put on administrative leave, and our newspaper has still not gotten anything official to explain how her name got on the list.
Meanwhile, the audit report has not been made public.
We note that the SSB’s internal auditor, Denise Mahler, was also put on administrative leave; however, SSB chairman Lois Young told us last week that Mahler had been cleared of wrongdoing and went back to work.