PSU President calls for heads to roll in the public service for participating in”Smurfing” Invoices

Dean Flowers, President of the Public Service Union, is calling for strong disciplinary action against public officers who participate in or facilitate the practice commonly referred to as “smurfing” or the splitting of invoices to avoid established financial oversight mechanisms. Flowers says public officers entrusted with managing taxpayer dollars have a duty to ensure that proper procurement and payment procedures are strictly followed, regardless of any challenges that may exist within the system.  His comments come amid the Oscar Mira debacle where the allegations are that invoices within the government’s SmartStream system may have been deliberately broken into smaller amounts to bypass required levels of scrutiny and approval. According to Flowers, there can be no justification for public officers failing to safeguard public funds and ensure compliance with financial regulations.

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union: “I want to make it absolutely clear that we’re not only calling for the head of this specific finance officer, if it is that the law was broken or rules were violated, we’re calling for the head of all finance officers who participated in this type of scheme. And I want to make it absolutely clear as my request to the Auditor General stated, this is only one ministry and I’m pretty quite sure that the Auditor General and the Accountant General who sees these entries or who has a duty and a responsibility to see these entries on a daily basis is fully aware that this may spread across all ministries and if it is that all of them need to be dealt with, then deal with them. I don’t care if they’re a member of the union, iIf they’re not members of the union, that is not my concern. My concern is to ensure that as a partner with the Government of Belize and with the people of Belize that we safeguard the assets, the resources of this country and that we manage them properly. We are privileged to have been given the opportunity to work in the public service. And so that comes with responsibility and where wrongdoings is discovered or found, I am calling for strong disciplinary action be taken against those officers whosoever or whomever they are.”