And the former Commanding Officer of the Services and Support Battalion also explained the effect of a change we have been hearing about for years: the BDF command has been stripped of the power and financial resources to make its own procurements. From its inception the army had been set up for that with specialized personnel.
But, since 2020 that authority has gone back to the Ministry in Belmopan. Our whistleblower - who we stress has extensive experience in procurements - discussed the effect of that change:
BDF Whistleblower, Ex-Commanding Officer - Services and Support Battalion
"Well, in the past, as you rightfully put it, the BDF used to be the sole manager of its resources, procurement of them. I found out that that's not the case. And that's where we are seeing a number of complaints as it relates to the quality, quantity, and time lapse as it relates to the BDF receiving their items."
"Why is it that the CEO or the minister would want to go through the process of finding out how many pounds of cabbage, carrots, how many pounds of ration we might need, when the BDF would have known exactly who to go to because the BDF would have already had a relationship with different vendors? As it relates to items that they've been receiving historically, quite frankly. And the end users of these products are the soldiers. And no person better to know what you want is those that are receiving it, but now you're seeing that the ministry now has control of that particular function of that process there. It only begs the question, why?"
"So it's... I don't know how to put it, Jules, honestly speaking. It just points directly to corruption as far as I'm concerned because the minister nor the CEO needs to do this. The Commander Belize Defence Force, he would be maybe the ideal person to... and then he is the ideal person to supervise his department. But that power is taken away from him. It's like now all he got to focus on is just what? Training and running operations. He doesn't have the power to purchase his own stuff?"
