7 News Belize

Garden City Grabbings, Who Got A Deep Discount On Innovabel Land?
posted (September 30, 2024)
11 days ago we told you about the sweetheart deals at the Innovabel housing site in Belmopan for friends, family and fellow councillors.

We knew that the former mayor's relatives, and former councillors had benefited from lots sold off at a massive discount.

Today, a list of these land holdings was circulated which we believe to be credible. But the markdowns on prices were more incredible than a thrift store that's going out of business. Here's what we saw on the list:

This table shows how 43 parcels of land at Innovabel were divvied up to councillors, senior employees, friends and family .

These 8 parcels at the top went to a company associated with a former senior council employee and her son. The parcels were priced by the council at just under 20 thousand dollars each, then what is called an unauthorized price of one thousand dollars each was assigned to four of the parcels. But of that, only two thousand dollars was paid. So what was listed at 160 thousand dollars, priced at 4 thousand and sold for two thousand amounted to a discount of 99% and a loss in earnings to the council of 158 thousand dollars.

20 of the parcels highlighted in yellow were allegedly sold to the Mayor and her relatives - including her brother, her sons and the Mayor herself.

One of her son, Mateus Furtado got 8 parcels - stated value 160 thousand, but he paid? A mere 4,000 dollars - but he did pay what is called the unauthorized price.

For those 20 parcels the council received 24 thousand dollars, which the approved price was 400,000 dollars - a discount of 94%.

And the two for the mayor- no figure appears under the amount paid, so perhaps those were on the house?

And then for the 6 parcels linked to Palacio's former deputy mayor Hope Amadi - those were marked down to 500 dollars - which he paid - a total of 3,000 dollars for land with an original stamp value of 120 thousand dollars

The best deals in history - and in the end - the current council is saying that for these listed parcels - the council received only 50 thousand dollars for land that should have cost over eight hundred thousand dollars - a loss of 758 thousand dollars to the Council

This morning on Sunup - before we saw this list - the mayor discussed this fire sale of municipal lands:

Pablo Cawich, Belmopan Mayor
"We had noticed that some lands were sold at undervalued prices. We tried to confirm where the authorization for these amounts for the transaction amounts was paid and we went through the minutes of the council meetings and we only found one where an approval was given and that was specifically the council itself. No other sale had an approved under valued amount. We also checked with the ministry of local government and they had no knowledge or information on this sale, on these sales for the undervalued amount."

And while it looks like a screaming case of misfeasance, he said they just want to try to recover the unrealized earnings and avoid the courts:

Pablo Cawich, Belmopan Mayor
"What we are trying to do as mentioned we are trying to stay away from Legal action. That is the direction eventually we will end up having to go to, when we reach that point that is something our lawyer is going to advise us on. But for now as you know legal actions take time and we are trying to ensure the council can get back on its feet as fast as you can."

And recovery is more important for this mayor than uncovering corruption:

Pablo Cawich, Belmopan Mayor
"Regarding the Innovabel land issues, that is not our primary focus. We obviously have to deal with the issue because it is a reality, but we are focused on ensuring that Belmopan jumps back on its foot and is taking it forward."

We did ask the former mayor for comment when we first ran the story 11 days ago, and she promised to make a social media post which has not yet appeared. But her son, Albert Johnson did comment on a post this evening urging for an entire list to be published, saying, quote "trying to bad her up while cronies that fund elections own hundreds of acres here in Belmopan. Her list is out, let us see all the lists then do the Mathematics."

Today we also reached out to Palacio's former deputy mayor Hope Amadi, but up to news time he had not answered.




Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize