Today the UDP held a 2-hour press conference where, as usual, they discussed the most pressing issues facing the country. At the top of that list was the revelations of GOB's dealings with companies associated with Oscar Mira's relatives. As we told you, there have been hundreds of payments from the government to Mira's sister Jenny that are all less than $10,000 in order to avoid scrutiny from the Ministry of Finance.
Well now the UDP has written under the Freedom of Information Act, requesting specific information about those and other Mira family dealings. Leader of the Opposition Tracy Panton outlined what they're demanding.
Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition
"We have submitted a freedom of information request to the prime minister and the Minister of Finance seeking all public records and documents relating to contracts, memorandums of understanding, procurement arrangements, purchase orders, payment schedules, invoices, tender documents, and related agreements involving Jenny Mira, Mount Pleasant Farms Limited, MP Farms Limited, FAST Construction Company Limited, FTW Company Limited, and any related entities for the period of 2020 to date."
"Through the Mira FOI request we are demanding the full paper trail, the full paper trail. We want to know, to whom were these contracts issues, what contracts were issued, what was the value of these contracts, what tenders were publicly advertised, who evaluated the bids, who approved the contracts, were procurement procedures followed, were conflicts of interest declared, were politically exposed persons involved, were payment made before goods or services were delivered, were stacked, split, inflated or structured to avoid scrutiny, were public officers pressured to approved payments, were the goods and services actually delivered, did the Belizean people get value for money?"
