On Friday it was no holds barred between Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya and her council’s central government installed financial controller Patrick Tillett. Moya accused Tillett of being petty and personal and accused him of overstepping boundaries when he purchased a non-working $34,000 dump truck and allegedly gave unauthorized discounts on property tax. Tillett maintains it was all within his terms of reference and told us he believes it was all payback because he exposed the City Council’s so called “under-depositing.” Tillett filed a police complaint and on Friday told us he doesn’t plan to withdraw it – at least not yet.
Keith Swift,
“Do you plan to withdraw your criminal complaint?
Patrick Tillett, Financial Controller - Belize City Council
“No.”
Keith Swift,
“Why not?”
Patrick Tillett,
“There is substance to it and let it go through to the end.”
Keith Swift,
“Have you seen the receipts that the Mayor showed to the media?”
Patrick Tillett,
“I have seen them, we continue to work on them to try to trace the basis of them.”
Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City
“He can go ahead with whatever he wants. Mr. Davis has provided the supporting documents, he has explained himself, the senior accounting officer has substantiated that explanation, some of the persons who received payments have substantiated that they have in fact received such payments and I believe the reasoning why it may not look correct to Mr. Tillett it is still an explanation.”
Keith Swift,
“Are you convinced by what you’ve seen?”
Patrick Tillett,
“If I am convinced?”
Keith Swift,
“Are they a satisfactory explanation for you?”
Patrick Tillett,
“Well it’s ongoing. It is ongoing and we have concerns.”
Keith Swift,
“Its been two weeks.”
Patrick Tillett,
“Yes but that’s not the only thing I do.”
Zenaida Moya,
“If you want to go the route that it was done illegally or not according to the law when it comes to Mr. Davis, then we will also have to go the route of Mr. Tillett, that while he was acting in the capacity as City Administrator he too was not acting legally as per the law. So there should be no double standard here and so when one person would be blaming another person, they have something which says that before you blame somebody, before you look to take the speck out of another person’s eye, you take the log out of your one.”
We’ll keep following the story.
