NO MORE!

The stench that is once again coming out of City Hall has nothing to do with the garbage problem that has plagued city residents as a result of this Zenaida Moya run council.   This stench, which started in 2006 when she first took office, is coming from yet another financial scandal involving City Hall – the latest involving the fees paid in to the council by market vendors at the temporary market in Belize City.

Considering all the scandals involving “under-depositing;” the recent issue at the Belize City Traffic Department; the introduction of special legislation to rein in some of the unethical practices at City Hall (dubbed the Managing Mayor Moya Bill) and the arrest of Moya for theft, it would be expected that the Belize City Council would do all possible to keep things clean and transparent.  It is now clear that this UDP City Council is incapable of even the slightest bit of propriety.

This latest scandal involves the monies collected for rent from the vendors at the makeshift market on Cemetery Road.  According to one of their own, Councillor Kevin Singh, the vendors at the temporary Market were supposed to pay $125 monthly towards their arrears; however they were being made to pay $10 per day or $310 monthly towards their arrears.   Yet the records at City Hall shows arrears for the vendors increasing instead of decreasing and no one could account for the monies collected, even though receipts were issued to the vendors indicating that they have been paying.

Singh claims that officials in the financial department at City Hall told him that the monies collected may have been going into the wrong account and as such could not be identified in the system.   He said, “I went to check and I couldn’t find out where the money was going.” This gross mismanagement of funds, not to mention the fact that the money cannot be accounted for, is unacceptable, more so for a council well into its second term.

Of course this latest scandal comes as no surprise to anyone, since Mayor Moya and this UDP City Council continues to be mired in financial scandals, incompetence, neglect, bad management practices, disunity and overall corruption.

It was only weeks ago that Central Government had to step in and halt what looked like a sweetheart deal that would involve selling off the park at Newtown Barracks.  This is just one example of the deals certain members of this Council have apparently been making. From contracts for hauling land fill to the renting of overpriced heavy duty equipment, everything at City Hall seems to involve a hustle.

Compounding the already bad situation, this broke council clearly lacks the capacity to develop any real plan to manage the City’s finances. With inadequate oversight and no regard for proper accountability to the residents of the City, Zenaida Moya and the Belize City Council have completely destroyed the Council and as a result have abandoned the City.   Every service, including proper collection and disposal of garbage, maintenance of streets and drains has fallen into neglect.  It is a gross dereliction of their duty. Yet this Mayor Moya makes time to call for a summit on Crime.  It was appropriate for Jules Vasquez of Channel 7 to comment that she can’t even pick up the garbage, yet wants to be calling a summit on crime.  What should have been obvious to the Mayor are the unending scandals at City Hall involving missing taxpayers’ money, something that in and of itself is criminal. Moya and her team should do us all a favour and resign.

The Prime Minister once referred to a previous administration as a ‘kleptocracy;’ surely he must now be hanging his head in shame when the largest UDP run municipality continues to behave like the real kleptomaniacs?  What was that line again?  “No watch me, watch yu self!”

| | | | | |