Local News

The Orange Walk Town Council held a press conference today at the Town Hall to reveal the administrations financial standing after having conducted some investigations since taking office in early March.

Dalila Ical reporting…

Kevin Bernard - Mayor, Orange Walk Town

“What the Council encountered was an overdraft facility that was not being serviced; it stood at the time at $111,279.00.  There is two accounts that the Council operates, there was a transport account that by the end of March 9 after paying out payroll and other expenses that were incurred immediately coming in that bank balance stood at $98,045.36.”

An assessment dated August 2011 shows that the council owes the Social Security board over thirty thousand dollars in fees.

Kevin Bernard - Mayor, Orange Walk Town

“Further investigation also led to not e that the council in November 2011 had about 100 employees on a work program that was working between November and March, just before the election and neither were their contributions for Social Security paid in to the Social Security office.  We have estimated that figure to be a little bit over $50,000.00.  What I want to say is that this council is proactive and we are already committing ourselves, we have already started making our contributions.”

Mayor Bernardo says they are now making payments of up to two thousand dollars to clear the arrears at the SSB, but the new town administration also needs to clear a bill at the Income Tax Department.

Kevin Bernard - Mayor, Orange Walk Town

“The previous administration neglected to pay income tax for the entire year of 2011 and for two months in 2010 and for January and February 2012 and that should be costing this council a little over $16,000.00 that is being mild because that could have incurred interest and all of these things.  We are getting in contact with the Income Tax Department to see how we can address that.”

Bernard adds that the council also has a bill of $88,000 to a contractor who was hired by the previous administration.

Kevin Bernard - Mayor, Orange Walk Town

“That contract was signed in February 2012 for a total of $88,000.00 plus where he made a commitment to pay Mr. Grijalva $10,000.00 a month and a final payment of $8,000.00 plus.  The Council is looking into that because as you are aware the position of the Council is very bleak.”

In addition to having inherited a debt of well over two hundred thousand dollars, the Mayor says they are conducting an additional investigation into an alleged embezzlement at the council.

Kevin Bernard - Mayor, Orange Walk Town

“The issue of the Carl Westby case earlier that has now accounted to $21,000.00 and there is more evidence coming in.  We are going to speed up that process in terms of the investigation and we are going to speed up the process in terms of the investigation and we will have to take the legal and necessary action against whoever was involved in that case, the alleged embezzlement of funds that was quoted by the former administrator Mr. Moguel on a letter dated 8^th March that was sent to me.”

The Orange Walk Mayor also spoke of discrepancies that appeared in an internal audit done for the period 2004/2005 to 2009/2010.

Kevin Bernard - Mayor, Orange Walk Town

“There were many discrepancies, internal controls were either ignored or never used at all, it was a mess, it was a complete mess.  The misappropriation of funds and the mismanagement of monies continued because right now we are doing a lot of internal audit and we are seeing a lot of discrepancies still continued leading up to the March 7 election and we are currently conducting an investigation and we have hired the services of an independent audit which should be commencing in two weeks time.”

However, Mayor Bernard says they are taking steps to ensure they meet operational expenses. The council has also requested assistance from the Ministry of Finance. Despite their financial predicament, however, Deputy Mayor Josue Carballo says they have successfully completed several infrastructural improvements in Orange Walk Town. During this morning’s conference, the new administration also launched its website, owtc.bz. Councilor Ian Cal, whose portfolio includes Information Technology, says through the website they aim at showing the public full transparency in their operations.

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