Dr. Morris will be president - at least until Cabinet reviews an external audit which is ongoing. Morris told us about that process, and discussed the internal audit of the Music Ambassador's office:..
Dr. John Morris, Interim President - NICH
"And now the external audit is focusing on the internal audit to either validate the audit or to see where the supposed errors were made within that audit. So it's a 2 step process. I can tell you that the external auditors are currently working. I saw them in Belmopan yesterday and this morning. I believe that it will take, given that next week is a short week, it will take about another week of work. During this particular period of time the focus for the internal auditor would have been the Institute of Creative Arts, which is the organization that is mostly based in Belize City. The Music Ambassador's operations and office falls underneath that particular organization. So literally the music ambassador office in some sense he will report to the director of the Institute of Creative Arts, or that's where they would work together. Because the audit was for that particular organization, then his office is also audited."
Reporter
"The institution' board has criticized the internal auditor for work done and then you have him going out and doing another audit for the institution."
Dr. John Morris, Interim President - NICH
"It's a quandary, when you think about it. I don't think that the board of directors - they were critical of the work, in the sense that there were some errors particularly factored in the internal auditor did not meet with some of the directors to clarify some of those outstanding issues."
Reporter
"The music ambassador has also called for the resignation of the board that he has criticized as a rubber stamp of the minister. Now you as acting president, you are in the hot seat, so to speak, will now be the face of his criticism. Do you foresee any issues moving forward now that he is being audited?"
Dr. John Morris, Interim President - NICH
"Well you know I have the luxury of being the director of the Institute of Archaeology and if the seat gets too hot I can always run to the ATM caves and spend a couple of days in there and then come out again and nobody will remember. But really and truly to respond to what you just said, the music ambassador has his opinions. I have worked with the music ambassador in the past on a number of occasions and I don't foresee any issues with the music ambassador."
Morris rejected the interpretation that the internal auditor had been told to conduct the audit but not to interview the Music Ambassador for his input.
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