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The write-offs are only one element in the 508-page Auditor General’s Report for the 2017–2018 financial year. The wider report paints a troubling picture of weak recordkeeping, missing documents, unreconciled accounts and public losses that were not properly tracked. Perhaps the most serious overall finding is that the Auditor General could not give a clean opinion on the Government’s financial statements. In fact, auditors could not give an opinion at all because they were not provided with enough reliable records to verify several major account balances. The Auditor General concluded that the accounts did not fairly show the Government’s financial operations for that period under the Dean Barrow administration.
The timeline is also notable. The financial statements were for the year ending March 31, 2018, but they were not submitted to the Auditor General until April 30, 2026, more than eight years later. That delay made it harder to locate documents, verify transactions and find officers who could explain what had happened. The report also found that Government did not have one complete register showing all the land, buildings, vehicles, machinery, computers and other property it owned. This means there was no single reliable record showing what Government assets existed, where they were or what they were worth. Several major account balances also did not match.
One section identifies a difference of more than $61 million between two of Government’s main financial statements. That discrepancy was not properly investigated or corrected. Auditors were also unable to independently confirm Government’s outstanding loan balances. The report says some public officers who would know about the transactions were unavailable or had moved to other positions. In several cases, auditors were left without anyone who could properly explain why certain entries had been made.
The report also found serious problems with the Government’s Statement of Losses. Of 386 cases reviewed, only about ten percent had fully completed loss forms. Two hundred and twenty-four cases did not even include a dollar value, making it impossible to determine how much Government had actually lost. The Police Department accounted for the largest number of loss cases, with 161, or almost 42 percent, of the files reviewed. Of those, 115 had no loss amount recorded. The cases included vehicle damage, traffic accidents and missing firearms. Further, the report notes that auditors identified sixteen media reports involving possible losses to Government, but only one had a corresponding official loss report. Separate sections raise concerns over Belize Defence Force finances.
These include more than $62,000 in credit-card purchases that were not properly accounted for, suspected mismanagement involving over $220,000 and more than $63,000 collected through an unauthorized petty-cash operation. The report also raises questions over the handling of the BDF Benevolent Fund, duplicate receipts and other funds that remained unaccounted for. Another serious matter appears near the end of the report, where auditors describe the apparent destruction of records during an inspection at the Golden Haven Rest Home. Love News understands that the Accountant General’s Department has acknowledged several of the weaknesses and promises to improve recordkeeping, reconciliation and internal controls.
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