And one clear form of corruption Henry alleged was the audit report for the Belize branch of the union, dated for the financial year 2020/2021. The document was leaked to the media and was widely circulated. Last week, the then first VP, Dean Flowers, shot down reports of the mismanagement of money within the branch by saying that document was bogus - created by a disgruntled union member.
But former president Henry said that isn't the case. He explained that the audit report was legit, and done by a senior member of his auditing department. So why did Flowers call it a fake? Well, Henry told us that he and other members of the executive body worked to ensure that the audit never saw the light of day, and instead made their own.
Gerald Henry, Former President, PSU
"I just did not want to contest the election and then, I don't know what happened, but there's a report that came out into the media that was done by a previous treasurer by a particular branch. When that came out, I was interviewed about that. It's not like I came out to discuss that, it was sked of me and I had to, of course, be truthful. I couldn't say oh this is a fake report or anything of the sort."
"Indeed that was a genuine report that was shared with all the members of that particular branch and the report was done by a very experienced and capable auditor in fact one that was a part of the immigration and nationality audit. So it was not someone who didn't know about accounting, the person actually seniors me in the audit department and I have been an auditor for the past 27 yeas but that person holds a higher post than I do and so I have a great deal of respect for her and her abilities. And when that report came out, it was shared with all the membership of that branch and it went to the council of management and she had made certain comments about certain individuals in that council. The report came out and the next step, the council decided they were going to - the same members that were called out in that report - decided they were going to audit the treasurer's report. 14:50 so it's like me going to audit a particular ministry, lets say ministry of lands, and then when I produce my audit the chief executive officer and the chief finance officer and those persons there decide to look at my report and produce their own report."
"That report was an official report that was represented not only to the membership but to the council of management, it also was presented to the annual general meeting for the branch so it is clearly an official report. Not because you don't like what was in the report you consider it fake, so I guess that's what happened, they didn't like the contents of the report but nonetheless it was an official report."
But as president, didn't Henry have the power to ensure that this type of dishonesty was nipped in the bud? Well, one would think so, but Henry explained that the post of president is on the same level as all other council members. He also noted that he has observed mismanagement of money throughout the years.
Gerald Henry, Former President, PSU
"I was observing certain things that I did not like to see as an auditor. And I wasn't comfortable with some of the things I observed, however, when that report came out and I got into the details of it and so on, I was then even more concerned with the fact that we need to ensure that there's far better accountability and transparency in the union. And the attempts by the then treasurer for that branch to get some more features in the report, the branch treasurers report, those failed when she requested for them to be added, she requested that from the national treasurer that a section be put into place that would then identify outstanding receipts because as you know outstanding receipts is pretty much equal to outstanding money because receipts is equal to cash not being able to..."
"Account for cash, hence the reason she wanted to have a section in the report that speaks to outstanding receipts however when she attempted to do that the national treasurer rejected that and insisted her report remains in the format that he prescribed which did not include missing receipts and so that is where the clash occurred in one instance and there's the issue of monies being deposited in personal accounts, there's the issue of monies being given as grant, medical grants, etc, to certain members of the branch and things like that should have gone through the membership of the branch to get approval of the membership of the branch, you can't just give away membership money like that and those things were reported on as well."
Reporter
"It's your council, you're the head of the executives, isn't it something you could have done to take control of the situation?"
Gerald Henry, Former President, PSU
"I found that oftentimes, that's the reason why I was outvoted on a lot of instances, because as far as the way how things operate the president is only another member of the council and the voice and the face of the union but in terms of authority, there was nothing there I could have used in any occasion or instance to veto, if you want to call it that, the decision of the majority of council."
