Last night on 7News, viewers got the first peek at an unreleased audit into the Unemployment Relief Program.
That's one of the government relief programs which the Barrow Administration rolled out last year to come to the aid of thousands of workers who lost their jobs when the COVID pandemic first shut down the economy.
Back in Mid-October of last year, the then government announced that a total of 67,555 applications were received for access to this government aid. Of that amount, 42,890 were approved, which represented a financial commitment of 38.6 million dollars.
But a leaked audit of the use of those government funds has revealed that corrupt insiders at the Belize City Labour Department managed to game the disbursement system and intercept substantial sums of that money, depriving deserving applicants in the process. The Labour Department was entrusted to run the program, and now, an audit team has uncovered evidence of fraud, forgery, and theft, and they suspect that dishonest staff members facilitated the fleecing of public funds - or at the very least - they intentionally looked the other way while vital disbursement information was being falsified.
Last night, we took a close look at some of the questionable cases unearthed in the audit investigation. Tonight, we focus now on the strong recommendations that the Office of the Auditor-General has made to prosecute those who are implicated.
Daniel Ortiz reports:
In paragraph 98 of the report, the Office of the Auditor-General makes a substantial list of recommendations for criminal action to be taken against those insiders who apparently fleeced the public purse through the Unemployment Relief Program.
The Auditors advise, quote, "The Chief Executive Officer at the Ministry of Labour should:
- Report this matter to the Commissioner of Police and the Ministry of Public Service... Thereafter, utilize the assistance of the Commissioner of Police to confirm the whereabouts of top-up cards to recover them.
- Refer the matter of an apparent forgery of Recipient #41's signature to the Police.
3.Refer the matter of family members of staff of the Belize Labour Department intercepting government financial aid with the use of their personal cell phones to the Police Department.
- Request the Assistance of the Internal Audit Unit within the Ministry of Finance to conduct a detailed review of each Labour Department and its management of the URP.
- Hold accountable all Officers that formed part of the URP for the issuance of government funds without proper due diligence as per Financial Order number 351
- Ensure that all Officers remain neutral when handling members of the public, whether [or not] they are related. If they are relatives, then it would be appropriate to remove one's self from the situation, so as to not create a sense of unfairness and interference with due process.
- Conduct an extensive test of whether [or not] those listed as receiving a top-up card were indeed due the funds, to establish the credibility of the Ministry's role in the URP. This may require confirmation with approved applicants on whether [or not] signatures shown in the signature sheets indeed match theirs on their social security cards.
- Hold verifiers/vetters accountable for not following the guidelines provided to vet and verify applicants properly, to ensure that persons did not benefit through misrepresentation of their financial circumstances. Furthermore, hold them accountable for untruthful comments made by them that facilitated the issuance of funds to applicants that may have lied in their applications.
- Obtain the assistance of the FIU in obtaining detailed bank confirmations for amounts deposited and withdrawn after the scope of our audit to confirm total balances intercepted by staff, family members, and acquaintances of staff of the Belize City Labour Office.
- Recover public funds allegedly received by staff, family members, and acquaintances of staff of the Belize City Labour Office
- Consider a review of applications with the intent of obtaining truthful information from staff on whether others also included their friends, relatives, and acquaintances into the alleged fraud scheme."
End quote.
The Auditors summarize their findings by asserting, quote, "there was a significant breakdown across the system with serious failures in vetting, approving and issuance of top-up cards by the assigned staff of the Labour Department... There may have been an apparent synthetic identity fraud occurring within the Unemployment Relief Program. A genuine social security number, name, and date of birth were used along with the possible fabricated addresses, contact numbers, and employer's names to receive an approved top-up card..."
We note that the audit team shared concerns that the top-up cards - which was the payment method that was abused - were most likely targeted by persons who had intimate knowledge of how the system would work. The staffers named in the report had access to the electronic applications, and they could have swapped out the phone numbers or banking information of deserving applicants so that they, or persons connected to them, could access the money from the ATM.
As we told you, a key part of the disbursement process was the use of cell phone numbers of the applicants. That's where the personal identification numbers were sent so that the applicant could withdraw the money from the ATMs of the banks which were used as the payment agents. There was even suspicion that a bank employee, connected to one of the staffers implicated in this audit, could have also facilitated the fraud.
The Audit team has recommended that a careful police check of the surveillance footage of the ATMs, on the days when the money was withdrawn, would reveal the identities of the culprits who got access to funds they shouldn't have.
