And that mischievous report also stated that around 70,000 dollars was missing from the Belize City Council. Today, Deputy Mayor Miller said that's bogus too:
Eluide Miller, Deputy Mayor of Belize City
"Those statements are absolutely untrue. There is absolutely no missing funds at the Belize City Council and there was no altercation of any sort, verbal or physical. I think one of the things that is important to acknowledge, the Belize City Council is not just simply a political organization. We are a statutory local authority with some serious responsibilities. We are charged with managing municipal finances. We are also tasked with providing municipal services. And so wherever people make these kinds of statements, we have to hold them accountable. And so we'll be seeking the advice and guidance of our legal council to do exactly that. As I shared with Marisol earlier, we have a whole lot of internal and external mechanisms in place to ensure that we remain fiscally responsible. Those include the fact that we have an internal auditor. He's supported by an entire team within the council. We just underwent our board of survey, which is really led by the ministry and the wider government on April 1st at the start of the fiscal year. We continue to do our audits. We just completed the audit for the financial year 2024-2025, which will be shared publicly. We continue to work on the audit for the recent fiscal year 2025-2026. We also continue to publish these statements as well. If you visit the Belize City Council website right now, you'll see our financial warrant for the current fiscal year. So we have been extremely transparent in that kind of way, and we continue to be. I think this is all an effort to bring the council in disrepute. And we have a responsibility to those bondholders that invest in our city, right? And we take that responsibility very seriously. And so we will seek to hold these persons accountable for these completely false accusations. "
Reporter:
"Do you think it could be someone from within the council or someone that works at the Belize City Council that could be the source of this issue?"
Eluide Miller, Deputy Mayor of Belize City
"I wouldn't want to say so at this time. I think, as you know, we are in a heightened political season. And we know that, especially the opposition, they tend to get extremely creative during this time. I think it's a distracttion. We have on this side a Belize City Council, which is united. We're getting a lot of good work done. We have a lot of plans for the remainder of the municipal term. And on the other side, they're struggling to find municipal candidates. And so I think it's all to destruct and detract, right? And so I will not say that that is the case, but I do feel that it's just a little play from the opposition"
