At the top of our newscast, you saw Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya calling out the Prime Minister. Well, it's much the same in Orange Walk. The Orange Walk Town Council is angry with the Ministry of Finance's decision to confiscate $10,000 from the council's monthly subvention. The money is to repay a $37,000 loan from GOB to the council as severance pay for Marla Hernandez. Hernandez was a cashier at the council and on November 7th of 2006 she was terminated for redundancy. The town council agreed to pay her the $37,000 as severance pay but it was supposed to be on their terms.
Turns out it was not because through her attorney Elson Kaseke, Hernandez got the Ministry of Finance to pay her the full amount up front. The council agreed to repay the government one thousand dollars monthly, but when the town council got its check from GOB this month, it was short $10,000. And because of that, Orange Walk's Mayor Ravell Gonzalez is livid. He told us that he never agreed to a loan from GOB but more importantly - his already handicapped council will be crippled by a $10,000 monthly deduction. We also spoke to Gonzalez's councilor in charge of finance Carlos Pererra.
Ravell Gonzalez, O/W Mayor
"We have no contention in the fact that our former employee needs to get paid but our contention is that at no point was there any discussion, at no point was there any consultation with the Town Council. The Prime Minister just arbitrarily decided to deduct $8,000 from our subvention plus $2,500 for another employee. The reason this is of grave concern is because we already find ourselves in financial difficulties and for the Prime Minister to decide something lime this on his own, it will only further cripple the Town Council. For him to decide without informing us that he would pay off Miss Hernandez and deduct so much, to me it is illegal. Not only illegal but fashion is very dictatorial."
Carlos Pererra, O/W Town Councilor
"The subvention is a significant part of our operating expenditure or recurrent expenditures and for us to take a knock of over $10,500 without any consultation at all is going to be detrimental to the people of Orange Walk and can affect other workers as well from other areas because if we are unable to operate and meet certain expenditures, it is going to affect the town overall."
We should clarify that of the $10,500 deducted - $8,000 is to repay the loan for Marla Hernandez's severance and the remaining $2,500 is for another employee that the council terminated. So what will they do? Well Gonzalez they will appeal to the good graces of the Minister of Finance who is the Prime Minister. Failing that, Gonzalez says they'll do what they did during September when they needed money to finance their tenth of September activities, they'll fundraise.
