But the question remains: why has the Ministry taken control of procurement instead of leaving it in the hands of the BDF? Well, the Commander explained that it all started in 2017 when misappropriation of funds and resources was identified:
Brigadier General Anthony Velasquez, Commander, BDF
"So this started from around 2017, 2018, there-ish, when a scandal broke out about German training in Belize, and there were allegations that misappropriation was happening with the German account, or the training account. The Belize Defense Force controlled all their accounts at that time, right? And there were some serious allegations that misappropriation was happening with the funds that the German army was depositing into that account for the BDF. So the account was taken from the BDF and the ministry started to handle that."
"A couple years later, there was again concerns about misappropriation or mismanagement or just inadequacy, what's the word, just not doing the proper things, right? But with the Belize Defense Force volunteer vote, right? So that was taken from the BDF again and sent to the ministry. Around 2020, thereabouts, there was again a huge concern about the Belize Defense Force, the people in the Belize Defense Force who handled these accounts, about the rations that were being bought. You made some mention about the cost and everything else, right, the prices. There were some huge concerns that, again, misappropriation was happening. So that vote was taken from the Belize Defense Force and the ministry started to handle that. So by 2021, thereabouts, the completion of that evolution happened, right? So all the purchasing ability was taken from the BDF and the ministry had it."
