On Friday Belize Rural North Area Representative Edmund Castro blew the whistle on what he called the fleecing of taxpayer dollars. He was complaining about the $93,000 contract to rehabilitate the Maskall Health Clinic. The building is 50 years old and was infested with termites and bats. The Social Investment Fund awarded a contract to Oscar Pollard to renovate the clinic – fix the roof, build a bathroom, and add windows. But on Friday Castro showed us termite infested rafters and joists and called it a bloated contract. Well today the Social Investment Fund struck back at Castro and for its own good name, and 7NEWS was in Maskall for the showdown.

Keith Swift Reporting,
These are the woodlice ridden joists we showed you last week at the Maskall Village Health Center – which is under renovation. Today when we visited we found new joisters connected to new rafters. So there were no woodlice – or at least none in the ceiling - but Belize Rural North Area Representative Edmund Castro found one outside. He pulled it off this beam on which work has finished.

Castro also pointed out the foundation for this concrete post which he says is a substandard low grade mix and he proved it.

[Castro breaking off piece of foundation of concrete post.]

Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Representative
“Look at this, look at this Jules. Look at the poor quality. Look here. Almost a whole 10 pound is broken off.”

Carlton Young, Consulting Engineer
“One of the things is you have to remember, that’s very easy for public consumption obviously but let’s try to break one of the columns. That’s number one, number two is you the design is for the load that is on it. That is only a verandah roof it is supporting, so it’s not a beam, its not a column. But I accept that the visual effect is there.”

This happened in front of Carlton Young, a private engineer who is contracted to overseeing this and many other projects for the Social Investment Fund. Young along with Castro and SIF’s Executive Director Oscar Alonzo were on site today. It has become a media and political battleground but Alonzo was unwavering. He says young is satisfied and so he is also satisfied.

Oscar Alonzo, Executive Director – Social Investment Fund
“From what I’ve seen I am satisfied that the consultant has been taking his service properly. What needs to be removed is being removed.”

Keith Swift,
But are you satisfied based on what you’ve seen?

Oscar Alonzo,
“From what I’m seeing there doesn’t seem to be any rotten items being left in place. Those that had to be removed have been removed and we reemphasized with the consultant to ensure that the contractor removes what needs to be removed.”

Carlton Young,
“Thus far we think we are on track. It hasn’t been a perfect project and none of these projects are. Speaking from a budgetary point of view, they tend to be tight projects so we normally have challenges but I think we are dealing with the challenges. The roof won’t appear new, it is not a new roof.”

Jules Vasquez,
But isn’t it a bad practice to close in stuff that you know is rotten and will continue to deteriorate?

Carlton Young,
“We’re not going to close in stuff that’s rotten. That’s not what we are doing. More importantly the best thing would have been to change the roof completely. That was not the scope of work, so we can’t tell them to do that. That’s not our place to determine the scope of works. We reviewed the budget and that was not in the budget. If we could later the budget or if possibly we could have not changed thirty windows, we could have not done the bathroom extension and we could have instead had a brand new roof.”

And while he accepts that the work won’t be perfect – Castro says it is thoroughly unsatisfactory.

Edmund Castro,
“I love Mr. Alonzo. I try to get along with my colleague engineer brother Young. But the quality of work that has been done here or is going on is not correct. Hundred and odd thousand dollars and you could walk up and actually break the cement. Basically I want to see that we do good for our people. The days of them old when they do bloated contracts and have $100,000 to do foolishness like this must stop.”

Keith Swift,
So what do you want to happen?

Edmund Castro,
“I would want them to stop and let us try fix it because category two or category three or four don’t take the roof, I bet you the woodlice will take it because what we are putting on, the zinc on the roof, the boards are rotten.”

Keith Swift,
But as an Area Representatives, as a Junior Minister, why can’t you go to Cabinet and say your clinic in Maskall needs a new roof?

Edmund Castro,
“No because a contract was already signed with a contractor working on a roof so the best time to catch it is now before it is finished and sealed up and looks nice and pretty. The quality of work isn’t here and we need to stop this. Let us do it right.”

And the man who Castro blames is the contractor – Oscar Pollard. Pollard energetically defended his work and reputation.

Keith Swift,
We see termites crawling out of a wood, we see Mr. Castro breaking off a part of the concrete foundation. What’s happening?

Oscar Pollard, Contractor
“Treatment should have happened. We are presently doing treatment so when Mr. Castro says that is not doable, it is because it is something that is very fresh and it was already broken off prior to today because the guys were straightening up the column steel and he just broke that off.

I would say this building needs much more than a $100,000. If you really bring it back to new, taking off the entire roof and everything – you need more than $100,000. $100,000 is not any big money for a project like this.”

Keith Swift,
Why do you think Mr. Castro is criticizing the project?

Oscar Pollard,
“Well I think other people hear it, Mr. Castro really doesn’t like me. He is a political figure and I am one. He is now the Minister and Mr. Castro has no regard for me. And this is not something that is happening presently, this is something that you would call an old beef.”

Castro refutes that – and also frowned at our suggestion that he’s using this to divert attention from the controversial road he pushed through in Crooked Tree.

Edmund Castro,
“Come on brother Jules. We are building a road for the people in Belize Rural North and the road will continue. All the people that are working on the necessary clearance have already indicated…”

Keith Swift,
Have you done an EIA?

Edmund Castro,
“I don’t know what is an EIA but the fact is that the people will get their road and the road will be completed by next month this time.”

And Alonzo says so will the rehabilitation of the Maskall Health Clinic.

Oscar Alonzo,
“We don’t see any need for any cancellation right. The only need there is, is for him to work closely with the consultant. He needs to follows the instructions of the consultant which he has been doing.”

Jules Vasquez,
It is going ahead, it is going to finished, works are afoot. You can say what you want, it is going to be finished. What is your response?

Edmund Castro,
“Well I will continue to bring it forward and show the Belizean people I don’t believe it is the best thing, I believe that we could do better, I believe that we deserve better. So if the contract will continue based on paper then I will show you physically where it doesn’t look good, it is not right, so let the people be the judge.”

So as Alonzo stated the project will continue and it should be completed in a month’s time. So far more than half of the $93,000 has already been disbursed. Alonzo told us that as with all SIF projects – they will withhold 10% of the money from the contractor until a year has passed. This is customary and it is done to ensure that if anything goes wrong during that year – say for example the roof starts leaking – the contractor will be obliged to fix it.

Last year SIF tendered and saw to the successful completion of about 60 projects.