Those payment vouchers (reproduced on this page), numbered 1081 and 1182 are for $4500 and $500 respectively. Voucher #1081 states 'Payment to above for payment of loan,' while voucher #1182 states - 'Payment to the above name for balance of payment for loan received from the Business Association on July 24th, 2008 (9000) plus interest (1530) Total 9000 + 1530 = $10,530.00.' Both vouchers are signed by Mayor Ravell Gonzalez and are made out to the Orange Walk Business Association.
Sources within Town Hall are claiming that the loan wasn't really from the Orange Walk Business Association, but was from a local pawn shop, with the OWBA just used as a cover. Those sources point to the interest, which stands at $1530 on a $9000 loan over a period of 4 months. That translates to an annual interest of 51%, loan shark rates.
If those sources are correct, it highlights the mismanagement and financial desperation of the Orange Walk Town Council, even under the umbrella of a supposedly 'sympathetic' Central Government. The term of the UDP Council has been riddled with allegations of misappropriation, missing money and misuse of money. Under a PUP Central Government, the UDP Council blamed its chronic financial woes on what they called victimization. Under a UDP Central Government, though, it seems that those woes have plunged to new depths, with the Council allegedly resorting to a pawn shop or loan shark funding to meet expenses.
The Council has also been accused of a chronic lack of accountability, since it has never released a comprehensive financial report to the public during its three year term. In fact, the Council placed a lockdown on all its financial records, refusing to disclose them even though they are public knowledge. Recently, the mayoral candidate for the PUP, Ramon 'Monchi' Cervantes Jr. wrote to Mayor Ravell Gonzalez, asking for the disclosure of the records. Gonzalez refused to do so, claiming that the reports of the Council had been published somewhere (though he did not say where or when.)
If our sources are wrong, and they are rarely wrong, then the loan from the Orange Walk Business Association is tied into UDP crony Landy Burns, who at last check was the President of that Association. In that case, then, Burns or somebody in the UDP dominated Association is making big bucks off the Council's woes, 51% to be exact.
It is not known exactly what purpose calling the Police in
to Town Hall would serve, since all records of the Council are public domain,
but the Belize Times can only assume it was done for the intimidation factor.
What we do know is that if the Council is so jittery about revealing their
transactions, money from a loan shark or pawn shop may be just the tip of the
iceberg. Source: The Belize Times.
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