It's been 50 days since a PUP council was elected into City Hall and today the mayor Bernard Wagner presented a transition team report. And, included in there were a whole lot of goodies on what the previous administration did and didn't do.
But one of the most attention grabbing revelations was something that happened after the election on March 8th, when what the Mayor says is an oversized payment was authorised for contractor Gilbert Franklin:..
Bernard Wagner - Mayor, Belize City
"When we assumed office on March the 8th after winning the election on March the 7th we noted this particular accounts payable which was done on March the 8th - one day after we winning the election. For some reason or the other this payment seemed to have been accelerated. 39 loads of hardcore material, 23,400, 32 loads of All in, 24,000, 10 culverts, 7 culverts for a grand total of 59,600. I want you to note keenly the date, 8th March - why was there such a rush to process this payment? So I asked our works manager to go to that street, measure the street and give me an estimation in his view of what's the value of material that went on that street and I have here his report and you note his report is dated 5th of April - this is when he brought it back to me. He is saying here Mr. Mayor I did my estimation on the number of value for the material there is around 44,000 so approximately 15,000 unaccounted for. Why was this payment accelerated?"
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