Ministry of National Defence Audit Back will stretch as far back as 2015

Prime Minister John Briceño says the Government’s audit of the Ministry of National Defence will go back as far as 2015, as authorities seek to establish a full picture of how public funds were handled within the ministry over more than a decade.  The Prime Minister made the announcement on Saturday during the People’s United Party’s National Party Council meeting in Dangriga. His comments come amid continuing scrutiny of payments and procurement at the ministry, including concerns surrounding contracts linked to the family of former Minister of State for Defence, Oscar Mira.  Briceño says the review is not limited to the current administration. Instead, it will examine transactions and procedures dating back to 2015, a period that includes the latter years of the previous United Democratic Party administration and the current PUP administration.  The PM warned Saldivar that the review would uncover wrongdoing from the period when he held responsibility for the ministry.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “And I have some news for John Saldivar because he was the one that is being so Pius. The Auditor General is also going to be auditing all the way to 2015 and so we’re going to find what John Saldivar was doing then. So if they want to talk about what’s going on then it is time for us to go and look what happened under the UDP when they stole millions and millions of dollars ladies and gentlemen.”

From March 2012 to February 2020, John Saldivar served as Minister of National Security, with responsibility that included Defence. He was succeeded by Michael Peyrefitte, who held the National Security portfolio from February to November 2020, during the final months of the UDP administration. Following the PUP’s election victory in November 2020, Florencio Marin Junior was appointed Minister of National Defence and Border Security, a post he was stripped of last week with PM Briceno now holding the portfolio in the interim.//