Ask any politician from the ruling party what happened at the Ministry of Defence with all the self-dealing and insider contracts—and he or she will quickly spout the party line: "the Auditor-General is investigating."
It's a convenient cop-out for all politicians cornered by publicly held evidence of questionable contracts awarded to friends and family.
But, what really is the Auditor-General investigating? We spoke to her today in Roaring Creek and she explained that the priority area is the alleged conflict of interest:
Maria Rodriguez, Auditor-General - Office of the Auditor-General
"So, for clarity, the BDF audit had already been part of our annual plan; it was scheduled for September. However, due to public outcry, we have moved it to begin as recent as you mentioned, the date when Prime Minister had announced it. We are the execution phase; we are gathering evidence. We have met with the Ministry of Defence personnel to gather all the documentation that they have available. We have also obtained documentations from other entities such as Contractor General and the Belize Companies Registry; I must thank them for their support with the audit. But we are still at the execution phase, and we are trying to work on the priority areas, which are the alleged conflict of interest, and then provide a bigger audit report to the Ministry of Defence."
Jaleeza Roberts, Reporter
"So you all think that you will need more than the 3 months? Like an extension?"
Maria Rodriguez
"If we focus on the priority areas, we can meet, for decision-making purposes, we can meet the deadline conflict of interest, but to provide overall overview for the entire Ministry, we definitely will need more time, but we need to work on those priority areas because decision-making has to happen very soon."
