Tonight, we have more leaked screenshots showing another pattern of structured payments from the Ministry of Defence to a high-volume supplier. But this time it's not a company owned or operated by members of the Mira family - but it is the same Ministry and the same pattern of payments hovering under that one thousand dollar threshold to escape Ministry of Finance oversight. Jules Vasquez reports:
Tropicana is a popular footwear and clothing store in downtown Belize City. Formerly known as Gaylord's, its website boasts that it is a male fashion store established 40 years ago. It is owned by the Hotchandani family, a well known name in downtown retail clothing.
Smart Stream leaks received by 7News show that in February 2022, Tropicana was the beneficiary of a single-day windfall: 19 payments of $9,476.65 each, totaling just over $180,000.
They used the exact same invoice number for the entire run of payments - merely tacking on a hyphen and a trailing number to enter the clones.
The current CEO, who was not there in 2022, could not specify what the payments were for but he said the company did supply uniform items in the past.
Such supply contracts are usually awarded after a published tender notice, and a selection process to choose a successful bidder. A contract is then sent to the Contractor General for approval. Once approved, the contract is signed, and an invoice is issued for a 50% down payment, which is then paid by the Ministry of Defence with the approval of the Ministry of Finance.
Former suppliers tell us that's standard operating procedure - but in this case - with this succession of sub-$10,000 payments-it's difficult to say what happened.
But could this have been an attempt to undermine procurement procedures and bypass the Contractor General, who must approve all contracts over $50,000?
A formal inquiry from an aggrieved supplier's attorney regarding a uniform contract yielded a damning admission from the Contractor General. The CG bluntly concluded: 'This matter was executed without the certification of review by the Office of the Contractor General.'
We only received leaks of two months of payments to Tropicana, which is a well-connected, high-volume, high-value supplier to the government. The 56 total invoices we saw total $247,353.72. All payments were below $10,000 and were made on behalf of 11 Government entities.
Speaking generally about these sub ten thousand dollars payments, the Fin Sec says something's amiss - here's what he told X News
Joseph Waight, Financial Secretary
"Clearly, there's a breakdown in the system. It wasn't intended to work this way. It takes, in our system, there are levels of approvals, depending on the amount of money. From what we see, that there was a deliberate effort to fragment payments, break them down to below. But I'll wait to see what the audit reveals. But sure enough, certainly it doesn't look good. And in my view, I think what happened is that either somebody dropped a ball, fell asleep, or worse, that they moved together on it."
We did speak to Arun Hotchandani, the business owner's husband. He said he was traveling and would have a comment for us in a few days.
