"Transparency" - it's a good governance buzzword that plays well all the way from Belmopan to Washington. But these days, transparency doesn't refer to much more than how poorly hid supposed state secrets are. And tonight, a matter that has been publicly discussed and was quite transparently exposed some time ago, gets some more airtime. It is the matter of Ministry of Education scholarship vouchers. Long dormant, 7NEWS now has new information which shows that government departments have been dutifully doing their job in tracking down this misuse of public funds as commissioned by the prime minister - it's just that nobody bothered to tell us or you - until now.
Diane Haylock, UDP Political Aspirant
[February 2003] "Officials in the Ministry of Education have been simply running a scholarship scandal."
Leticia Mora, Whistle Blower
[February 2003] "Actually it is like stealing. It is like stealing from the Belizeans because we are the ones that have to pay for it in the end. So I know I did wrong and I am just trying to justify it by doing something right."
That was the allegation and indignation in February of 2003 - just one week before the election when the UDP claimed to have uncovered a scholarship scam in the Ministry of Education. After that there was straight talk from the Minster of Education.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Education
[February 2003] "If there is any wrongdoing, if it comes out that there are improprieties then let the chips fall where they may."
And while the revelation was engineered by his opponent to hurt Hyde at the polls, he won by a landslide - his poll performance apparently unaffected by the revelation.
In the 20 months intervening, nothing meaningful has been revealed about the scandal and these hundreds of vouchers. But now 7NEWS has obtained this document, a special audit performed by the office of the Auditor General. It shows that the investigation continued, with the purpose to, "Verify and obtain written confirmation from education institutions that all individuals in receipt of financial assistance from the ministry of education are in fact registered students of the institution." The investigation also sought to ensure that those whose names were on the vouchers did receive the money. In both queries the Auditor General found gross irregularities and misuse of public funds.
But though it was a scandal publicly aired, the government has suppressed this document. And in an administration wracked by allegations and intrigues of corruption, that suppression - at this point, may be almost reflexive. The Auditor General found that: "the initial exercise..revealed whereby some 1,337 individuals who were not registered students...received financial assistance totaling some 666 thousand, 192 dollars during the period April 2001 to March 2003."
In what he calls the "initial exercise" the Auditor General found that this list of schools - 46 of them, ranging from primary schools, to the University of Belize were used in the scam. What was the scam? Vouchers were given to students, or just in names of persons who it turns out were not even registered at those schools, in some cases persons who weren't even in the country and others who had no knowledge that their names were being used. According to the audit findings, at the University of Belize where the bulk of the irregularities occurred, at 309 vouchers valued at $307,367 were issued in the names of 309 persons not registered at the school.
And from the institution of highest learning to the lowest, schools like St. Luke Primary responded to the Audit Department that these ten persons never attended the school; the all saints' principal had to do the same. It's wrong doing abetted by corruption and complicity in more than one government department, and at all times abetted, permitted, just ignored, or as in this case this shoveled under the table by an administration that witnessed corruption in matters large and small.
And that further investigation referred to in the report is at hand. We understand that it has been submitted to the Prime Minister, who today told us he doesn't see what all the secrecy is about in the first place.
Keith Swift,
Will you release the final report?
Hon. Said Musa,
"Well it is no secret that there were irregularities committed in terms of the some people who abused collecting fees, so to speak, for their education and who were in fact not involved. That's not secret. That's nothing new as far as I am concerned so I have no problem with the release of any report."
Keith Swift,
Is that a commitment?
Hon. Said Musa,
"Yes we will release the report. The proper channel for this is when the public accounts committee considers these things. That is the proper procedure, okay."
We this evening contacted the chair of the public accounts committee, which has a new chair, Cayo South Representative John Saldivar. He is awaiting word from the Clerk of the National assembly to be allowed to call his first meeting.