And tonight finally we have some comment from the Mayor herself who issued
a press statement today. It is a lengthy statement –three whole pages,
but the central points are first, that no money is missing, the charges are
trumped up, and that the attack on her is from the Minister of Finance –
Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the leadership of her own party who does not
have the support of the party’s rank and file. The release – which
is almost one-thousand five-hundred words long – does not once use the
term “under-deposits.”
It does however say that all those documents presented by the Mayor to the
media on July 14th comprise quotations and estimates, invoices, post-it notes,
requisition forms, claim forms and memos with receipts. The release explains
that the special auditor refused to confirm those documents as legitimate –
which, “is regrettable, as the Finance Department has confirmed that
those documents were what they made payments on.”
So that’s it, the proof of how public funds were disbursed in cash is
in the form of and we quote, again, “estimates, invoices, post-it
notes, requisition forms, claim forms and memos with receipts.”
The release also deals at length with the amended city council regulations
which require the council to get permission form the financial controller to
make payments greater than fifty dollars. When it was passed, we called it the
managing Mayor Moya bill because it was clearly an attempt by central government
to reign in what they felt was a rogue mayor.
Well Mayor Moya’s release says that the law, “is both impractical
and a slap in the face of a duly elected City Council. The release says that
because the mayor resisted this and stood up to the Minister of Finance, “this
has caused (him) to declare war on her...” On this subject it concludes
that “there has been a public trial of the Mayor and the Belize City
Council by rumour and innuendos led by the Minister of Finance and his minion
Patrick Tillett.” Thereafter it proceeds to quote scripture.
Serious business and previews of what promises to be a very public war between
Moya and the Minister of Finance. The real fireworks begin tomorrow and of course,
7News will be there.
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