Last night, we showed you our interview with Senate President Darrell Bradley. That was the conversation in which he discussed his decision to offer himself as a candidate for leadership of the UDP. Well, that press encounter allowed us the opportunity to ask him about the recent Belize City Council Audit that Mayor Bernard Wagner disclosed 2 weeks ago in a press conference.
You’ll remember how Mayor Wagner painstakingly outlined the assessment that auditor Cedric Flowers did of City Hall’s finances. A snapshot was taken of the last few months of Bradley’s final term in office, and it was compared the same period during the Wagner administration’s first year in office as the newly elected council. Wagner pointedly amplified findings in the audit where the Bradley Administration could be criticized for engaging overspending or imprudent spending of public funds. He then contrasted that to his own council’s performance and the findings of the auditor that City Hall saved over a million dollars in expenses under his leadership.
So, yesterday afternoon, we put that pointed criticism directly to the former mayor, and here’s how he answered that:
Reporter
"The suggestion was that your administration - there was waste and overspending of finances."
Hon. Darrell Bradley - Former Mayor, Belize City Council
"If you’ve noticed - and I’ve made a deliberate thing to do this, because I’ve been on several talk shows and people have given me the mic. I have refrained from it. There is a certain value in politics, which I think needs to be said. I have not once, not once, uttered a negative word about the current mayor of Belize City. That person is my mayor. I’m a citizen and resident of Belize City, and I want the City Council to do well. I can stand here confidently, and say that when I was mayor of Belize City, Belize City did well. I won two elections, and by wide margins. So, that I had the confidence of residents of Belize City. That time, in terms of my leadership, has been closed. I did well. Nobody can say that I did anything improper, irregular, or whatever. Maybe there may have been policy directions that another political party - another leader - would have chosen otherwise. That’s their choice. So, a new person is in that space, and it is for them to prove to the Belizean people that they can do well. I would only add here that Government is not about saving. When you have a surplus in your bank account that is no victory for any administration. A government exists to deliver goods and services to people. The main focus of the municipal government is the physical infrastructure of a City. And no one can say that in relation to the major focus of Belize City, we were not on par."
Email
Print