What would you do if you were given the chance to purchase land in the capital city for only $2,000? Well for some former city councillors and relatives of the former mayor, they didn't hesitate to take that deal.
Yesterday we told you about the suspicious land dealings that were reportedly occurring during the tenure of former mayor Sheran Palacio. Those deals saw elected officials, staff and relatives allegedly purchasing land for almost 80%discounts- with the loss in unrealized earnings going to the city council. And, in some cases, persons received multiple parcels - all at severe markdowns.
It's a tangled web of insider trading that the current council has had to untangle, and they've been doing so quietly, until one of the former councilors who benefitted went to another media house after she was told she owed several thousands of dollars for the land which she had already bought.
Now, Mayor Pablo Cawich is only hoping that they will be able to recover some of the revenue that was lost. Courtney Menzies spoke with him today and has this story.
Right now, the Innovabel area of Belmopan is little more than dirt roads and bushy lots, but the vision for it by previous city councils has been a new and bustling community. And over the last three years, the former council sold many of those lots.
But it has now been discovered that many of those lots were given under corrupt deals - parcels valued at $20,000 were sold as low as $100.
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"Reviewing the accounts, we started looking at the valuation of some of those land in the Innovabel area and some of the payments that had been received and we had noticed that - and the $2,000 is just an example - there were different percentages of discount to different people."
Reporter:
"Can you confirm if some lots sold for $100 per lot?"
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"I can confirm that, yes."
Reporter:
"I have heard that some former councillors received in the number of 8 lots at $100 per lot."
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"Not for every lot. I'm not sure how much I can divulge but yes there is one particular councilor that got more than one."
Courtney Menzies:
"And relatives of the former mayor, they were also getting some of these land deals?"
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"Yes."
And these "land deals" amounted to serious revenue loss for the council:
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"The entire Innovabel project when it came to the land distribution and sales had approximately just under a $2 million loss in revenue."
"What we found was the lands in question had a value of $20,000. Adjustments were made to the value without any documentation of reasoning placed in the adjustments, just to use the $2,000 as an example, an $18,000 adjustment was applied as a credit which we can't see where the funding was coming from because obviously nothing came in, it was just an adjustment and the $2,000 was paid in some instances after the title was received."
And in the cases where the land was sold way below the value, Cawich says that the declarations sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources confirming that full price was paid were falsified.
So, former councilors, family members of Mayor Sheran Palacio, and even current staff members - two of whom have since been terminated - "came up" on the Innovabel project. And now there is not much that can be done for the council to recover those lost funds.
Reporter:
"Are you willing to concede that there is no legal obligations on any one of these title holders to pay any further amount than what they've paid or to return any of these titles?"
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"Once a title has been issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources, there is no legal stance anyone can take to force someone to pay additional funding. It is a reality that we are aware of but as mentioned we are hoping that as good citizens and good Belizeans their ethics and their morals will drive them to ensuring that they do pay the true value of the land."
"When we found these, what we found, our goal as I mention and I keep mentioning was not to target anyone. The only intention we as a council is to try and ensure that we collect the lost revenue."
"The only reason we're here today is because one of the people who participated in this unethical behavior decided to go to the media to try and imply that the council was trying to do something wrong."
And since the council was trying to deal with the issue quietly, the mayor says they also have no intentions of taking legal action, or putting the blame on any one person.
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"We have not found any evidence that points to the council's, as a body, and I'm referring to the elected officials, that they had any involvement other than some of them participated in receiving a land."
Reporter:
"I was going to ask because I think Sani Cal is the only remaining councillor from that past administration so he had nothing to do with those transactions?"
Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
"Correct."
Cawich also said that one of the former mayor's relatives received up to 8 parcels of land - clearly a scheme that still has many layers to uncover.
We reached out to former mayor Palacio, who said that she will be issuing a statement on social media.
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