And while that BTL stuff was the big business at Cabinet today - it seems that in the blur of that very full meeting, Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie had a slip of the thumb - which resulted in a private message posted to his WhatsApp status.
It's news for us because the message makes allegations of very blatant acts of corruption involving the director of a government unit. Because we cannot independently confirm these details at this time, we have to publish a redacted version of the message.
But, it says that someone is raising profound and urgent concerns regarding the administration, approval, and financing of recent road works, procurement activities, and contract awards within a government ministry.
The message questions, quote, "Why is the Director going back to Benny's to collect cheques for commission on purchases of materials paid for by the Government of Belize? Why is the acting Coordinator of the Unit? The answer is because he is there to manipulate spending and distribute the share of the pie to (blank... and then it names a minister and a CEO. The message continues, "Yes it's all about greed. There is widespread concern that payments are being approved for road work that is either incomplete or not executed..."
After that the message breaks off.
We did reach out to the Cabinet Secretary to ask about the origin of the message and what is being done about the very serious allegation of corruption and kickbacks. He said it was a message he received anonymously and was forwarding it to the relevant CEO and the Minister when he accidentally posted it to his status and removed it a short while later. He said the allegations are being looked into.
We will be following up on this.
