At Friday's the House Meeting, we showed you the strong condemnations that Julius Espat, the Minister of Infrastructure Development, had for Belize Infrastructure Limited. That's the company that the former Barrow Administration set as a special purpose vehicle, designed to undertake the design, construction, and management of the country's sports facilities.
You'll remember that Espat suggested that his ministry is struggling to account for the public finances spent through BIL for construction projects. He suggested that mismanagement was an element of this company's operations, and he took aim at the General Manager, Christy Mastry.
Yesterday, Mastry sent out a lengthy eleven-hundred-word press release in response to a few of the allegations that Espat leveled at her and the company.
She says that BIL was accused of using Smart Stream, the Government's Central payment platform, for its own operations. She categorically refutes that as inaccurate. She said that BIL is not, and has never been connected to the Smart Stream platform. She says that the Briceno Government inquired twice about this allegation, and on both instances, it was told firmly to the persons inquiring that BIL does not make use of this platform.
Last Friday, Espat suggested that there was, quote, "an incestuous relationship" - end quote - between BIL and International Environments. He also asserted that 80% of the contracts awarded through BIL went to IE. He alleged that Christy Mastry, who was the General Manager of BIL, was also a "partner/employee of IE".
Mastry responded saying, quote, "The General Manager of BIL has never engaged in a partnership with International Environments Ltd. This remains another indisputable fact… In fact, her (Mastry's) CV remains accessible online where both her local and international employment history can be found including her employment with IE for a short period which has never been shielded." End quote.
Mastry goes on to say that, contrary to Espat's allegation that she was making purchases without the approval, she had no financial autonomy. Another important allegation against Mastry is that some of BIL's financials were destroyed.
Mastry responded, saying, quote, "From its first fiscal year ending 2014, the General Manager presented to the Board and received approval to conduct annual external audits. BIL has since obtained audits and their attendant usual detailed questions and examination from the international and respected form of Grant Thornton and has published such audits (including online for anyone to see) and continues to retain its commitment to the public of this disclosure. The operational overhead as with any private office include recurrent expenses of phone, electricity, fuel, cleaning, office supplies, etc. These items are recurrent monthly / annually. Any office is aware of this. Once the audits were completed and these financials incorporated into the operational costs of the audit, only such redundant past files of recurrent expenses were disposed [of.] No files relating to projects were destroyed. " End quote.
