Last night we told you about the 12 bounced checks that Mayor David Fonseca cashed at the City Council between late 2005 right up to the very last day before the election. Well tonight we'll show you how Mayor Fonseca got $218,000 in salary advances. 7NEWS has gathered a trove of close to 50 vouchers and cheques from City Hall that show most of the transactions used by the Mayor to get $218,000 in salary advances or as he insists on calling them, "loans." It shows a system completely without basic accounting controls, and completely without the basic requirements for the safeguarding public funds. It is a system where the mayor rules, and what he says goes, even if it means approving dozens of loans for himself and never accounting for them or paying it back. Here's the story.
William David Fonseca served as mayor from March of 1999 to February 28 of 2006, exactly 7 years. Fonseca was paid $36, 000 annually but in 2002 it seems that it was no longer enough to support him.
In January of 2002, Fonseca started receiving salary advances. The first came on the 16th. January when City's Finance Manager and City Manager signed an $8,000 cheque payable to Fonseca. Later that year, on July 17, he received another
advance, this one for $6,000. And then just one month later, on 20th. August 2002 he received a $4,000 advance. Then again, in September, on the 25th he received $1,000. Just 6 days later on the first October, he received $5,000 and 6 days after that, another $1,500 dollars. There was a two month lull, and then, just in time for Christmas, on the 23rh of December, $6,000 bringing the total for 2002 to $31,500, almost matching the Mayor's annual salary.
2003 would be a year of national and municipal elections, bringing the Mayor's four year term to an end as he vied for another three year mandate. And in the month before elections - what could have been his last month in office, Fonseca collected one advance on the third February for $5,000 and another on the fourth for $3,500.
One month later, reconfirmed as mayor in a landslide victory, the practice of advances would continue, with $1,000 on March twenty fifth. On the second June, we have evidence of a $5,000payment via vouchers stating the ledger heading and making it clear that the "staff loan" is for David Fonseca and approved by Mayor Fonseca. On the thirtieth June there is another $4,000 and the 16th. July sees another $3,000 advance. On the 11th August there's a $6,400 payment voucher again under the heading staff loan, again approved and authorized by Mayor Fonseca and paid to Mayor Fonseca. On the fourth November, another voucher approved again by the mayor authorizes two payments of $2,000 each. Just one week later, another voucher approves a $4,500 "staff loan." In a charming aside, the voucher says this one should be "repaid in full."
There would be more activity a week before Christmas on the 18th of December when Fonseca got $2,000, seen here both check and voucher. And the just in time for New Year's, the kind of bonus we would all dream of, $10,000, another so called staff loan paid out in two $5,000 checks to Mayor David Fonseca, bringing the total for the 2003 calendar year to another $47,500 - a full 133% of the mayor's annual salary.
On the twenty seventh January 2004 it started again with a $3,000 advance, and a week later on the fourth February, he got a $4,000 advance in, as the
voucher describes it, a "loan approved to Mayor Fonseca." 2004 would go slowly picking up only again in October on the sixth when Fonseca received two advances for $3,500 each, and of course, there's always Christmas, three days before, when he got another advance for $3,000.
And while 2004 was relatively slow, in 2005 the self-approved advances started again at a blazing clip. First, on the fourth of January $4,000, on the eighteenth of January there was $3,000, on the 27th. January another $3,000. And then on the first of February $5,000 - $12,000 in advances in just a month. Add another $4,000 to that on the 10th, February when, in a cute variance, the Mayor's first name William was used to approve a loan to his second name David Fonseca. On the second March, he got another $4,000, and on the sixth April another $7,000 when, as the voucher rightly put it, a "loan approved to the above name by the above name."
There was a 5 month lull but the advances started again in September at a furious clip on the 22nd. When $15,000 were advanced to Fonseca in two different vouchers 170 and 171 for $7,500 each on the condition that they would be repaid by September 26th, four days later. These were in fact repaid but are the only ones that were.
By the 13th,. October, Fonseca was back at it, approving another $5,000 loan in what the voucher describes as "amount approved by Mayor Fonseca in favour of self" this one to be repaid by the following day. Up to now, over a year later, he has not repaid. But even without repaying, four days later, on October 17th Fonseca approved another $5,000 advance and this one stipulated no time for repayment. On the twenty third November Fonseca approved another $9,000 in advances for himself, this one supposedly to be repaid the following day.
2005 - would end with no Christmas advance, but with elections looming, and the now public fact that Fonseca would not run for office again, the self approved advances hit an all time high: $16,500 on the fifth January, and then $15,000 more 18 days later on the twenty third January. And for good measure, $8,000 on the second February, one month before he left office bringing the total in salary advanced for his last two months in office to $39,500, 110% of his annual salary.
All told $218,000 in salary advances over 48 months, 15 thousand dollars of it repaid, and it was the subject of a meeting between Mayor Moya and past Mayor Fonseca yesterday.
Zenaida Moya, Belize City Mayor
"We did discuss both situations, we discussed the loans/salary advances and we also discussed the bounced checks as well as the social assistance that
he calls it. We separated each item and the initial items were the bounced checks and there was $30,000 worth of bounced checks along with the fees. He said that he would be willing to pay for those. In terms of the rest of the loans/salary advances which equal $218,900 and something, he said that he would want that I submit to him the actual copies of the vouchers and checks for him to look at and ask his legal advisor whether he should pay for it."
Jules Vasquez,
The bounced checks and the salary advances alone are $248,000, you add in the $155,000 for social assistance, you get about roughly $405,000, that is all unaccounted for. Is that what you are saying?
Zenaida Moya,
"Correct because in terms of the loans, he got those, I must say that the staff of the Finance Department must have felt very compromised to have to be engaged in doing this type of, I would call it very illegal transactions because first of all the budget doesn't accommodate for these. We've trying to look through the minutes to see if these should have been accommodated for and we can't find it.
He has no excuses; it's in black and white. We have proof and that's why when I heard the news today I was like wow, we actually have evidence, we showed him the evidence. The evidence is there and still he is lying and saying it is otherwise so to me it shows that this person is a liar."
Jules Vasquez,
Is there a possibility that you may have to seek legal recourse or take criminal action against him, make a complaint?
Zenaida Moya,
"Well clearly this is something that is criminal. We have already discussed with our lawyers that this was something criminal. We have however discussed it with him and we are hoping that he will come in and in fact pay these sums immediately. There must be some source he can get the money from, the council needs the money. As it is today, I had to be in meeting with a particular bank, just to ensure that we could have gotten a overdraft facility to pay our salaries for our city council workers. This is not right, he has monies owning to the city council, I am there trying to fight to ensure that the hundreds of city council workers can get their pay. This isn't right, he needs to pay in the money quickly. Failing this we will have to take legal action."
Now Moya has to hope Fonseca can live up to his word and repay when he had not in the past. It's just one of the worries of managing a City Hall mired in debt after four years of being run like one man's private kleptocracy.
A few things we might note to add some clarity to the story. It is the law that every year the City of Belize has to submit audited accounts to the National Assembly for presentation but this is a law that has been ignored for decades. Secondly, loans or salary advances to employees attract interest of 6%, a modest rate, but one which has not been factored into the past mayor's loans. As to when or whether he'll repay these personal loans for which he has conceded personal liability, Fonseca says he is waiting for City Council to send him its paperwork and its legal position for him to come up with a formal response.
And…if you're wondering why all that we presented does not add up to $218,000 it shouldn't; there are a few vouchers and checks we didn't get our hands on, and what you saw there adds up to just under two hundred thousand dollars.
