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As we told you last night, the Prime Minister has fired former UDP Area Representative and Minister of State Herman Longsworth as Consul General to New York.  This is after he was named in an audit report of the Sports Council for diversion of public funds for works on the Marion Jones Stadium.   

The report found that he was the moving hand behind a shell company called Go Enterprises.  In mid 2015 the sports council retained Go Enterprises to do some work at the Marion Jones Stadium.  On 27th October - a week before the general election, the company received $75,000 in mobilization fees.  Longsworth - who held no office at the time since parliament had been dissolved and he wasn't running again - diverted $35,000 to the UDP/Albert Committee account and $5,000 into his personal account. 

The Auditor General's team concluded, quote, "it can be viewed that Minister Longsworth and the Directors (of the company) may have violated the prevention of public life act.by illegally (using) official influence in support of any scheme, or in furtherance of any contractin regard to which he had an interest." 

So, for that, the PM fired him, and today the Foreign Minister said that while he was not in on the decision, it's the first time that a Consul General has been fired during his tenure:

Hon.Wilfred Elrington - Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"I spoke to the Prime Minister on the matter this morning while I was en- route from Miami to here because I've just come back from Jamaica the day before and he indicated to me that the Cabinet had taken a decision to terminate Mr. Longsworth's tenure as our Consul representative in New York that is basically what I know about it. He's a Consul General, he's just below the status of Ambassador and I don't think we've had many Consul Generals to tell you the truth, we had one in California and then we had this one in New York. So my history of being in the Foreign Ministry, this is the first time this has happened."

Reporter
"Now that he has been terminated, what will happen to his post?"

Hon.Wilfred Elrington
"We'll fill it with somebody else that happens. You die, we fill, you're removed, we fill it, it's part of life you know."

Reporter
"Any idea of who that might be?"

Hon.Wilfred Elrington
"No, this is so sudden, one would now know or have on the tip of one's tongue who the successor would be but we do need to put somebody there because the Consul General role is to look after the interest of the Belizeans living in New York and in the United States. We have to try and find a replacement as he demits office."

Police have launched an active investigation into the Auditor General's report.