There was a House Meeting in Belmopan today, but while there was important legislative business to deal with, news of various UDP scandals dominated the day's debates.
The Prime Minister started off by tabling two reports from the Auditor General: the one we told you about last night for the National Sports Council, and another for Julian Cho Technical High School.
As we told you, the one for the National Sports Council shows the diversion of hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds by a Senior Pay Clerk, and the transfer of funds to political and personal accounts by the former Minister of State for Sports. The Auditor General warns that the second could be a violatIon of the Corruption In Public Life Act.
Today, when he tabled the reports the PM said the one for the sports council needs to go to the Commissioner of Police:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"That audit report needs to go to the commissioner of police who I expect will consult with the director of public prosecutions and I would imagine that action by way of criminal prosecutions will take place in the instances where the authorities: the commissioner and the DPP decide that the material sustains criminal prosecutions. There is one other matter concerning the then deputy minister of sports. Again, the report will go to the public accounts committee, but I do want to say that to the extent that there is an allegation as it seems to me a violation of ethics conflict of interest since that deputy minister is no longer in government as a minister, but is the consul general of Belize in New York, he will certainly have to meet with me and offer me as natural justice requires, his explanation with respect with that the auditor general says and I simply want to assure this house that I will act on the basis of what is in that report."
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