We can recall a certain Minister of Government saying, shortly after their spectacular 26-3 victory in the 1998 general elections, that the new government wouldn’t allow red tape to get in the way of progress. The Auditor General of Belize, Mr. Edmund A. Zuniga, has declared that his department has not been able to account for about 40% of the 2002-03 public debt of $666.4 million. It appears that a whole lot of red tape was by-passed to allow six hundred and odd millions of dollars to pass through the system unaccounted for. The 2008 general election looms in one, or two, not more than three months. As it stands today it looks like this apparent laxity in the handling of the public fund may turn out to be an election issue. If missing records don’t appear, the people may have to decide if there is enough progress in the nation to justify unaccounted hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars.
The last person to sign off on the financial statement before it is presented to the audit department is the Office of the Accountant General. Mrs. Anita Eck is the person who sits in that seat. Mrs. Eck, through her secretary at the Treasury Department in Belize City, turned down an Amandala request for an interview, saying that she had not the authority to speak on the particular matter. We were advised to look to the Ministry of Finance to speak on the issue.
Before going there, we sought some explanation as to why someone sitting in a seat as powerful as that of the Accountant General of Belize could not speak to the nation’s leading newspaper on public financial matters in her purview. For elucidation on this matter, we turned to “another hill” in Belmopan where sits the powerful office of the Public Service Union and its President, Mrs. Jackie Willoughby-Sanchez.
Mrs. Willoughby-Sanchez told us that, unlike the Auditor General, who is appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Public Services Commission with the concurrence of the Prime Minister after consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, the present Accountant General is a contract officer hired by the Government of Belize. But, it was not always so. Prior to 1998 the office of Accountant General was an established post – similar to that of a regular, established public servant. In 1998 the new PUP government cut through the burdensome red tape and hired Mrs. Carmen Barrow as a contract officer in the post of Accountant General. After Mrs. Carmen Barrow left the office of Accountant General, the Budget Officer in the Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anita Eck, took over as the Accountant General of Belize.
We followed Mrs. Eck’s advice and turned our attention to her superior, the Financial Secretary, Mr. Joe Waight, in Belmopan. The Financial Secretary told us “no fret” (our term), he is “absolutely sure” that the records do exist to explain all of government’s financial business. There is “nothing untoward,” he informed us, we are “cooperating with the Auditor General” to supply what his department needs.
We wanted to know what could explain the difficulty in finding the records. He told us that the department generates a volume of records, and maybe some were mislaid in moving things between Belize City and Belmopan.
And where does the UDP figure in all this? Are the hands of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition completely innocent of blame?
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, the body vested with the power to bring to task persons failing with the government’s financial affairs, has been a member of that party (the UDP) since the change of government in 1998. Former Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Representatives (1999?-2003), Honorable Erwin Contreras, told us this morning that the Public Accounts Committee held no meetings during his tenure as Chairman. There were no audits, he told us, no documents of that kind were tabled in the House so we didn’t have much to discuss. It was not until Mr. Godwin Hulse and Civil Society started applying pressure to the system that the books were brought out into the open, we were told.
Honorable Erwin Contreras admitted to a certain amount of inexperience during his first tenure in the House (1998-2003), and that he was not unhappy to hand over the job of Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee to a colleague he considered more experienced in that arena, Honorable John Saldivar.
The present Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Honorable John Saldivar, said that the committee had summoned the Accountant General and the Auditor General on two occasions (he believed in 2006 and 2007) to find out what was the reason for the delay in presenting audited records to the House. He said that the Public Accounts Committee is really an “after the facts” committee, that is, it needs the audited records to do its work. We gathered that the Public Accounts Committee has not been receiving the information it needs to do its work.
The Public Accounts Committee is comprised of six members. They are: Hon. John Saldivar (Chairman (UDP)), Hon. Jose Coye (Member (PUP)), Hon. Rodwell Ferguson (Member (PUP)), Hon. Godfrey Smith (Member (PUP)), Hon. Francis Fonseca (Member (PUP)), and Hon. Patrick Faber (Member (UDP)). According to the rules, any two members can requisition a committee meeting.
Whatever the excuses, as we stand at this moment over six hundred million dollars worth of public debt are yet to be explained. Missing records will have to make their way to the table soon, or somebody inside the House of Representatives will have to speak very fast.
P.S. Attempts by Amandala to speak with the Honorable Jose Coye, as member of the Public Accounts Committee, were futile. We understand that he was in Cabinet in Belmopan most of the day.