The UDP House of Cards

The house of cards that is the United Democratic Party run Belize City Council is on the verge of collapse.  And if it comes to pass, it may be as a result of the revelations by the Office of the Auditor General, whose employees have been embedded at City Hall since the start of Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers’ second term.  Clearly, without their input the exposure of the ongoing malfeasance at City Hall may have continued to be dismissed as political mischief.

Last month, the auditors pointed out that Moya Flowers has been reckless in handling taxpayer monies, unable to account for almost $300,000 in her now infamous phony accounting “under deposits” scheme.  If that were not bad enough, they also uncovered that she and the five 2006-2009 councilors, who sought reelection in March 2009, allegedly siphoned off our hard earned taxes to their campaign to pay staunch UDP supporters and cover miscellaneous expenses.

Furthermore, the auditors revealed that it is customary for the Finance Department to pay either phantom employees or payroll employees without their knowledge or consent for work done on behalf of the Council. Yet the checks were cashed and pocketed.  We were warned about Moya Flowers’ penchant for dipping surreptitiously into the “cookie jar” by former UDP Councilor Mark King, but we dismissed his revelations as sour grapes. In the end, we may never know the amount of money that the pilfering has cost us.

Perhaps to disprove further Moya Flowers’ claim that their boss Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Honorable Dean Barrow does not have “cojones,” last week the auditors revealed that between March 2006 and December 2008 she was overpaid almost $70,000 in benefits such as fuel for her husband Troy “DJ Dalla” Flowers and unapproved vacation grants.  Meanwhile, they are tracking down a missing checkbook that may prove that she was additionally overpaid tens of thousands of dollars.  Home was never like the public trough, “lee gyal.”

You know, Moya Flowers is indeed powered by the people, the people’s money that is.  And she should be ashamed for bleeding dry the broke Council, while the majority of us are finding out that “life haada out ya” with no relief in sight under the UDP.  It is clear to see that she is all about greed.  What else would explain why she is unable to survive on $10,000 a month in salary and benefits, which is already $4,000 more than her remuneration package that was agreed upon by the Council’s caucus in March 2006?

But wait, there is more.  The auditors have also revealed that Moya Flowers may not be the only elected Council official who has been playing loose with taxpayer monies at a time when the Council has been unable to provide the basic services to city residents or meet outstanding payments to its creditors.  The city has yet to recover from the garbage that was left uncollected for weeks while the Belize Maintenance Limited workers were on strike to collect their salaries.

Two-term councilor Leila Peyrefitte, who is responsible for revenue collection, last week came under fire for allegedly writing off approximately $400,000 in taxes owed to the Council by big businesses such as Courts Belize Limited, the Princess Hotel and Casino and the Santiago Group of Companies. These companies are far from the financial rocks and can easily pay up their tax arrears because they are extremely liquid.  They do not need the incentives.  This will not do.

If true, Peyrefitte has blatantly disregarded the Council’s bylaws that do not allow for any elected Council official or employee to offer any discount on tax arrears or to swap Council debt with in kind payment, and clearly shirked her fiduciary duties to the Council, which just now needs every last cent it can collect.  Pray tell Peyrefitte, where can we find the bartered motorcycles, laptops, filing cabinets, and such? This is a travesty but it is hardly surprising.

In contrast, the names of struggling businesses and property owners, who oftentimes owe the Council a mere pittance, are plastered in the newspapers, and their cases sent directly to revenue court for adjudication.  And if they are unfortunate to have the verdict go against them, the Council quickly dispatches its bailiffs to crowfoot their property to cover the outstanding debts.  There is no reason for Moya Flowers and the councilors to treat a large percentage of their constituents so coldly.

While the audit did not ascertain if Peyrefitte’s family business Peyrefitte Brothers benefitted directly from her charity, it revealed that three of its employees did benefit handsomely by collecting taxes on commission for the Council.  Between March 2006 and December 2008, one employee collected an obscene $80,000, while the other two were not as fortunate, collecting only about $50,000 each.  And it is scandalous that they are still employed by the Council when the Council is laying off single mothers who are making minimum wage.

Moya Flowers, Peyrefitte, Laura Esquivel, Dean Samuels, Wayne Usher, Philip Willoughby, and perhaps the new councilors have not learned from their mistakes.  They have yet to accept that they have been entrusted with power to do right by us and not to plunder the public purse or use their offices for personal gain.  It is clear that they can no longer relate to us and are unrepentant.  Just now, we feel betrayed and are embarrassed by their actions.  In the meantime, we sit by patiently waiting to see when the house of cards will finally come falling down.

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