And another problem the Ministry of Infrastructure inherited was missing government equipment. The minister told us that they have been on several retrieval missions after persons would call in, admitting that they are in possession of various types of equipment. He also said that they have been gathering evidence and may possibly take the situation to the courts.
Hon. Julius Espat, Minister, Infrastructure, Development, Housing
"Then we are looking at the ministry of works and that's when we got into - I don't know how to put it to you if its illegal, immoral or if its ethical, but you could combine all of those together. We have had situations where equipment that was bought by the people of Belize, fuel that was bought by the people of Belize, workers that worked for the people of Belize were being used for personal use and I'm not saying one day a week or two days a week for 6 months, I'm saying continuously for 6 years and the value that I have just recently calculated with my people we are looking at a loss of a minimum of 20 million Belize dollars. I won't get into details as to who and to where the equipment were, but we have a fairly good idea, In fact the whole country have a fairly good idea, because we have already retrieve 2 bulldozers, tractors, moers, 4 pick up trucks and there is still more. Every day we get calls from people, especially in the Cayo District identifying where equipment's that we know that is owned by the past ministry of works where they are located. In fact a moer came in 2 days ago. We are not just speaking about it, we have done to the point where people that were involved are willingly coming to us and giving us testimony that are witness by justices of the peace and attorneys coming out of the AGs ministry. We are trying to do as best as we can to compile documentation so that we can take it a step forward so that it can be placed into the attorney general's ministry to see how far we go."
