The audit of the Ministry of Defence under former Ministers Florencio Marin and Oscar Mira is ongoing. What the Auditor General calls the "conflict of interest" portion is supposed to finish by mid-September. But even then, the public may not see it immediately. Even though public outcry spurred the push for an audit, the procedure requires it to go to Cabinet first. So what does the head of Cabinet say about it? Will he make the audit public? Today in Belmopan, the PM told us he will have to look at it first:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The audit is ongoing right now and I really need to be able to see what they're talking, and I think the report goes to the Financial Secretary, not given directly to me. Obviously as the Minister of Finance, I would get a copy of it, but I don't see any reason why we'll not make that audit public."
Reporter:
"Immediately?"
Hon. John Briceno:
"I wouldn't say immediately, I would have to take a look first."
Reporter:
"But when it goes to the National Assembly it can't be altered anyway, so why would you need to say, 'Okay, I'm going to look at it first'? Is it to delay? I don't understand."
Hon. John Briceno:
"Because that's the process. The process is that we get the report and then we table it to the National Assembly. I don't want to commit to immediately, but let me take a look at it before I could be able to commit because I think we need to see what is the best way to go about it, but it would be made public."
Reporter:
"She says she hopes the conflict of interest matter, that a report can be provided to the Government at least by the end of September. Your thoughts?"
Hon. John Briceno:
"That would be wonderful."
Courtney Menzies:
"If the comprehensive audit takes longer than the 3 months period that these ministers went on leave, will they be asked to remain on leave?"
Hon. John Briceno:
"Well, they would not be able to come back until we get the report."
