Taking A Political Pounding, Mira Responds to Controversy Over Family Contracts

Minister of Home Affairs Oscar Mira has been through a withering three weeks. Ever since he made that cyberbullying complaint against Alberto August, he's been mocked by memes, pilloried in Facebook posts and battered by revelations of family businesses getting public contracts. Tonight, he's speaking up.

The press got 10 minutes with Mira today at a police event and we asked him about the contract his family members got to supply the BDF while he was Minister of State for Defence:

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I don't know if there if ongoing public criticism. let me just make clear that I sit on no procurement committee. As a minister of state and as a minister, I have never been on any one of those procurement committees, those are led by the Ministry of Finance, I have no say, I have no influence and I have never in my ministry or any other ministry tried to influence the decision of that committee. They have a job to do and they have done their job professionally."

Reporter:
"How is it that several of your family members are able to and were able to benefit from lucrative contracts?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"Tenders are published in the newspaper. Any interested person can apply and pay for that tender. They then go through a lengthy process. I had no say, I was not part of those committees. If they did so then they did on their own, not with my influence or with anything to do with me. Anybody who reads the newspaper and wants to be a supplier to the ministry can go ahead and do that. It is a long process, it's a process that I have no say, it is a process that happens in every ministry of the government and as such I was not a member of that committee or that process."

Reporter:
"How is it in your view not a conflict of interest?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I do not ask nor did I ask any one who applied, there are many people who have applied, that is just one company that applied, I was not a part of it, I don't even know how many people applied. It is not me who makes decisions. It is a committee who sits together and makes the decision of who gets contracts. Those are done, as I said before, by buying a tender package and going through the requisite, whatever it is that you need to, to supply. And I had nothing to do with that."

Even Mira Doesn't Know What's Up With All Those Sub 10-k Payments to His Family

And while he says his family's businesses legitimately qualified for government contracts why then did they send in hundreds of invoices for less than ten thousand dollars? It's a pattern observed over many years, and it is meant to deliberately avoid oversight and red tape from the Ministry of Finance. We asked him about those structured payments:

Courtney Menzies:
"Why were hundreds of the payments structured in a way to ensure that it's below $10,000? Did you not find this suspicious?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I have nothing to do with how government pays their contractors or their suppliers. I have nothing as a minister to do with how the Ministry of Finance pays. That is not my decision. I don't know, and I don't think it's also the decision of any supplier to ask how to be paid. I really do not believe it is that way. It is, as I have understood it now, a part of how payments are done. I really do not know. As ministers, I don't go into the finance office or any way trying to influence how or who gets paid. That's not my job."

Courtney Menzies:
"Now that all this information has come to light, the optics look bad whether or not you had a hand in it. Will you do anything to rectify it?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I think it's a public perception that, yes. And I really don't see the reason why those payments were made that way. If you go through the process, if you go through the procurement process, if you get your, you know, pay for your tender package, you go through the whole long process of all the paperwork that's included, because I have been asking, and you are awarded the contract, then, Yes, I think that, you know, you should be paid for the services that you have given and, is there a better way? I believe there is. I don't think there is any supplier who would want to be paid in so many small pieces. 'm sure that as a supplier, you would want to be paid fully. So that has nothing to do to do with with me as the minister of state or as a minister Now at the Ministry of Home Affairs. I believe that it's probably something that, you know, every crisis, you know, you learn from them. And I myself, of course, I'm trying to make sure that I learn from this. And the government has their procedures and they should be followed. I have no issue in having anyone but I, as a minister or as a minister of state, I really don't have a say in the procurement minister."

Courtney Menzies:
"Are you not concerned, though, that because these structured payments in the financial world is called smurfing and it's a form of money laundering, are you not concerned that your former ministry can be accused of money laundering?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"Of course, there's that concern. I don't think that any one wouldn't be concerned. But was anything illegally done? I don't know. I didn't know they call it Smurfing because I really do not go there asking or being part of the finance officer or whatever to do that. That wasn't my job."

A Political Avalanche That All Started With A Cyberbullying Complaint

And now that he is in the centre of a furious political storm, does Mira regret ever using - some would say misusing - the cyberbullying law to get prominent UDP Alberto August locked up?

So does he regret making that complaint? Mira said he did what he need to do:

Courtney Menzies:
"While you won't admit that it is a public onslaught, there is, at the very least, major discussion happening surrounding all of these allegations. And these came to light following the charges that you levied on Alberto August. Seeing all of this now do you regret levying these charges, or filing, sorry."

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"Okay, I think I must correct you. I did not levy any charges. I did not ask anyone to levy any charges. I am not a policeman. I can't levy charges on no one."

Courtney Menzies:
"Filing charges."

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I did not file a charge either. What I did was I made a complaint. I went and I made a complaint."

Courtney Menzies:
"Do you regret it, though?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I made a complaint because I felt that it was what I needed to do after I got advice on what I should have done. You don't, after a tragedy that happened here in Belmopan, you don't try to get cheap political mileage out of a tragedy that, you know, impacted the community that impacted the whole city of Belmopan and the medical community. There were, you know, there was a family that was that was very, very, that was crying for the loss of someone who has contributed so much to this city and to the wider community. And I just felt those words that I did not say, I made a complaint and I went to the police department to make a complaint that those were not my words, you know, whatever it is that he said, he said whatever type of, well, I don't know how they call it. You don't do that in those circumstances, you know, and I truly believe that as a citizen, I made, that as a citizen, I didn't make that as the minister of police. And he was afforded the same procedure like any other person. Now if you had been aggrieved, you could have done the same."

Courtney Menzies:
"Do you plan to file any charges against anybody else, considering that there's major discourse happening on social media and you have been mocked?"

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I do not file charges."

Courtney Menzies:
"Make a complaint."

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I will not discuss that because I have given all of those things to my attorney. My attorney is looking at those, he will advise me on the way forward. Many defamatory statements have been said and have been reproduced by many news outlets and many other people. My attorney is going to give me the advice and that is in his hands and those will be coming very soon."

Jules Vasquez will have more Smart Stream screenshots relating to the Miras later on in the news. Also, we should note that the Prime Minister returned to the country today after a 12-day break - rumors suggest he may take action to ease public concerns about political hustling run amok.

Pollard Launches Mayoral Bid With Political Hype And Intriguing Subtext

Tonight the political stage is set and there will be an interesting battle for municipal supremacy within the Belize City PUP.
Like many great contests, this one will see a contrast in styles between Allan Pollard and Eluide Miller - two men who want to be mayor but submitted their applications very differently.

Miller had a low-key visit to headquarters last week, bolstered by 7 of his councillor colleagues, while Pollard went to the party HQ today with a political hype machine in high gear. Jaleeza Roberts reports:

This morning, Allan Pollard Jr. made his way to Independence hall to submit his application to offer himself as the PUP mayoral candidate in the 2027 municipal elections.

Greeted by a swell of celebratory supporters, his entrance was very different from his opponent Eluide Miller who was joined by 7 councillors.

Different statements of support for two very different aspirants.

Allan Pollard Jr., Mayoral Aspirant
"I am formally submitting my application to become the next mayor of the city of Belize. Support and represent the beautiful people of the party and people of Belize. So that's here in my hand right now."

Reporter
"You have a big support out here. Did you ask for this?"

Allan Pollard Jr., Mayoral Aspirant
"No, well, I have asked family and friends to come, but you can't tell people they can't come. So everybody, they asked me to come out. They come out and support. It's always out there, and on convention day you will see the support."

But when we asked Pollard if in any way he felt threatened or offended by the fact that his councillor colleagues chose to endorse Miller as opposed to him, he said no:

Allan Pollard Jr., Mayoral Aspirant
"No, we have the support of the people that's all that matters. The delegates on convention day. Well, I respect all my colleagues that make decisions to support who they want."

"I bring a lot of vision, a clear vision. I'm young, but I'm very experienced. I've been in the council for eight years, going on my ninth year. You know, I know the ins and the outs. I've served in many different capacities. Of course, you know, the love and support of the people, and we plan to connect the people with the residents and the city hall together, and we plan to move this city into the way for our local people."

Pollard aspired to run for mayor in the last municipal election and at the time they told him that he had to wait his turn, but over time that tone has changed and Miller is not being asked the same. When we asked Pollard if perhaps the Party leaders should have relayed the same message to his young colleague, this is what he said:

Allan Pollard Jr., Mayoral Aspirant
"I don't think that's the Prime Minister's job. The Prime Minister's job is to lead this party. And if he believes that it's time to have a democratic process between the two of us, if he believes that it's healthy, then that is something that we need to do."

Reporter
"Should Miller have waited his turn though?"

Allan Pollard Jr., Mayoral Aspirant
"I think if my message is having representation and having people on the ballot, then if Miller wants to contest, then he should contest. Every young person should contest. Not only Miller, any young person who wants to run, any older person who wants to run, it's a democratic party. I think it's respect between everybody. And at the end of the day, we just have to put you in the work and make sure you bring out your delegates and make sure they come out and support you, that's all."

Reporter
"Are you upset they're not endorsing you?"

Allan Pollard Jr., Mayoral Aspirant
"No, no, I never expect an endorsement. Everything I have done since I entered this party in 2018, I had to work for, and I plan to continue working for that. So I don't need an endorsement. We are working."

But despite the Pollard's nonchalance, his father, a veteran of many PUP campaigns, had a different take: saying that his son was a major supporter of Bernard Wagner and the councillors and they have turned around and not supported him in return. He called them "snakes":

Allan "Duck" Pollard, Father Of Allan Jr.
"He was with the whole council, was with Bernard all the way, just due to Bernard and his son in law he decided that well, I will ride with and do his thing for Mr.Miller which I will do the same thing but if he can vouch and say that Mr.Pollard is a good person, Mr.Pollard do what he has to do and they don't have no dirt on my son, my son been there with no kind of dirt, they can't pinpoint the only ting my son has is his name not trying to get rich or nothing. He has his name and his name only."

"My son is too straight for those bunch of snakes, all of them is a snake because my son put out his head for one of the councillor and the minute that he got elected, he turned on him so he's a snake and the rest of them is a snake, plain and straight and my son is not about no money."

It will be a long uphill battle to convention day as both candidates have garnered the support of PUP loyalists but the delegates will get their way on convention day. Jaleeza Roberts, 7 News.

Friday is the deadline for applications and no date has been set for the convention.

ComPol Dodges Questions Amid Murder Spike

Earlier in the news you heard from the police minister. He and the ComPol were both present at the police awards ceremony, which we will tell you more about later. But while Mira spoke to us for about ten minutes, ComPol Rosado limited us to exactly two questions, even in the throes of a crime wave. We asked him about the recent spike in murders and whether he believes the recently ended SOE was ineffective.

Dr Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"First of all, I want to say that the main objective of the SOE is to ensure that the investigators can conduct the investigation without any impediment. And that was accomplished because we had four arrests from others during that time."

"Now, the safety and security of our country is our number one or our highest priority, and we will not allow any criminal elements to dictate the security environment of our country. Hence, the reason we have deployed all resources to ensure that we identify, apprehend, and prosecute those individuals involved."

Reporter
"Considering that one of the murders happened during the rush, the Saturday rush on Big Albert Street, do you feel like criminals are not afraid of interdiction?"

Dr Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"Without disclosing our operational strategies, I want to assure the public that we are applying our legal tools, proven strategies, and coordinating with our strategic partner to address the challenges that face us."

"I also want to assure the public that the investigators have a wide range of cameras networked that are available to them. Facial recognition, license plate readers. We have the advanced analytics that investigators can now track and identify vehicles and individuals from the time an incident occurred."

"So it's just a matter of time before we have arrests."

LIU Stipend To Gang Aflfiates Stopped But Mira Says Program Not Completely Stopped

And we didn't get an opportunity to ask the ComPol what he thought of the pause of the LIU's work program. But when we asked the minister if the program would be reinstated, he said the LIU hasn't stopped completely.

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"The LIU program has not stopped. There are many other segments of the LIU program that is continuing and is happening right now. One segment, which was the work program, part of the work program, that was the one that is being looked after. We want to make sure that we spend the taxpayers money right. And we want to make sure that those monies that we are investing, that we get the proper results, that's all that is happening. And, the program is still on. It is still being, the intervention is still there. Many things of the LIU program is still happening right now, as we speak."

Bribery vs. Extortion: The Forest Chief and the Businessman

Last night we showed you one of the most explosive stories we've ever reported on: the acting Chief Forest Officer, John Pinelo accused a businessman - who also has a logging concession - of trying to bribe him. And the businessman, Cesar Godinez accused the Chief of trying to extort him. It's a dark tangle of accusations and counter accusations - and, tonight, Jules Vasquez has the full story:

One company, Selva Conservation Limited - and two stories of how the acting Chief Forest Officer - became a shareholder:

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"I was shocked when you sent me a document with my name on it. I never signed anything to be a member of this company. I don't even know what the company is doing. I was asked if I wanted to be a shareholder. Yes, I will say that I never signed anything or accepted to be. I have never participated in any meeting or any discussion with anybody that professes to be the directors or managers of Selva Conservation."

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"I did my proposal, I submitted it. John saw it. He reached out to me. And, the only way that I would be able to get co-management of an area back here is, you know, you have to grease the wheels."

Jules Vasquez
"You're saying that John saw the application from Selva conservation and he then asked you to be a shareholder?"

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"Yeah, he asked me to "make me a shareholder, I can facilitate it."

Jules Vasquez
"Who asked you to be a member of the company?"

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"Jules In this job, you get offered a lot of, a lot of things. And, that is just the way, the nature of being a head of a department."

Jules Vasquez
"Offered things as inducements?"

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"Things are offered, I try not to entertain myself with that, but I was approached by one Mr. Cesar Godinez, who is a long term concessionaire in the Mountain Pine Ridge."

"And, I never signed anything just because I realized that he could use whatever he had to come back at me on a day like this. And the day is here."

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"Why would I want to give out shares in a company?"

Selva Conservation applied to co-manage areas of the park for recreational purposes. The former Chief Forest Officer Wilbur Sabido weighed in against it in this memo from June of last year - for context, here's a piece of the story I did at the time:

"A company named Selva Conservation wants to manage four recreation sites in the Mountain Pine Ridge area: they are Pinol Sands, Rio Frio, Granite Falls and the Ballerina Area.

It's proposed as a Private-Public-Partnership promising improved management of the Mountain Pine Ridge recreational sites, and contributing to the financial sustainability of the National Protected Areas System - among other objectives."

But, it was never approved:

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"Let's say I forced whoever to put me in a company. Why is the company not doing absolutely anything in a very lucrative area like the Mountain Pine Ridge?"

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"We didn't get no, we didn't get the areas, we didn't get the co-management. So then that's when he reached out and said, if you give this amount of money, I will make sure it goes, and I have, I have proof that I gave him money. That's for a fact. I have all my WhatsApp messages, when he would call me, sometimes I would not even answer his calls because it's a, it's a, I've been in business, I know how it goes. He would reach out to me, I would give, I would give, I gave him a monies and he would say, if you don't give me the money, I won't make it go through."

And to prove these claims Godinez provided us records of money transfers he sent to Pinelo's account in August and September of 2025, one for a flat 5,000 dollars and the other for 3,500 dollars.

Pinelo told us over the phone that those were for purchases made from his company PC.COM.

Jules Vasquez
"But he told me that this monies that you sent him were for products you bought from his company in Belmopan, PC.COM."

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"No, I don't buy any, everything I buy is from, I ship through Amazon."

Jules Vasquez
"So, have you purchased any products from his companies and sent payment to him because of that?"

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"Never purchased, I have never purchased anything from his company. I didn't even know he has a company that sells products."

Jules Vasquez
"So now those payments you made to Mister Pinelo, you're saying those were because he demanded those payments."

"You're saying it's extortion?"

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"Yes like extortion yes."

He also sent us screenshots from that time from Pinelo saying he had an idea for the "Selva" - presumably the company - and that he was trying to get the permit.

In another he says "we need to start doing activities". Selva Ltd did propose recreational activities in Mountain Pine Ridge.

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"I don't actively participate. I don't even know what Selva conservation is doing. Selva conservation definitely does not have any concession at all in in Pine Ridge."

"This is coming out now, and the only reason I would say that I think it is coming out is because my appointment for chief forest officer is coming up."

"I am acting, and so anything will come out of the woodworks to try and blackmail me or solve my name. So that whoever is making decisions look at me negatively."

And Pinelo has his own accusations to make

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"Mr. Godinez approached me after a meeting with my CEO and offered me money to help him facilitate his activities. And I told Mr. Godinez, I don't need any of your money. I am well off how I am, and I will be well off after you disappear from this environment. And then I mentioned it to my CEO, so she was aware that this gentleman was actually offering me a bribe to facilitate his documents."

But that is a serious allegation. You are accusing someone of a criminal act. Offering a public officer a bribe is a criminal act.

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"And why didn't you make a criminal complaint? I guess it was foolish of me not to follow it up."

Jules Vasquez
"He said you offered him a bribe right there in the Ministry's office."

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"I don't remember the last time I have been to the forestry office in Belmopan, the last time I was there was for my, it would be like 3 months ago. 3 or 4 months ago, I haven't seen John since I would say almost a year now when I, nothing got delivered so I didn't give him any money."

"But yeah we had a fall out, I didn't give him anymore money so he got, I guess, there's no money coming in so we've fallen out then that you can say but why will I be paying someone when they're not, they didn't deliver."

"He kept asking me and asking me and I gave him a couple of times, so..."

Jules Vasquez
"So now, but you realize that when you offer or when you pay even if you didn't offer, when you pay someone a bribe it's also a criminal offense."

Cesar Godinez, Owner - Selva Conservation Ltd.
"I don't know but I guess, what can I do? It was done. He asked me for money, I gave him."

John Pinelo, Ag. Chief Forest Officer
"In doing my job, I step on people's toes because they want to do business the way it was normally done. And because I pushed for us to follow the procedures people are building cases to try and mess me up."

"But now I have to sit and talk to my lawyer and find out what recourse I have to defend myself, because obviously somebody out there is trying to mess up my name to badmouthed me in doing my job."

We did try to get comment from the Belize Companies and Corporate Affairs Registry by phone and email, but, consistent with their track record of opacity, they did not respond.

Exposed: A One Day Avalanche of Payments to the Mira Affiliated MP Farms

Government's Smart Stream system - it has a record of every single payment that the government makes, from the mundane to the eyebrow-raising. And that's why no government has ever opened it up - but though the magic of screenshots and an - we've been seeing pages and pages of them.

The last time we got 47 screenshots and 497 entries showing Jenny Mira's invoices with the government of Belize. Tonight we have far fewer for another Mira family business, that's MP Farms, but what we saw is high-velocity, single-day payment processing. Jules Vasquez looked for answers:

On September 14, 2023, the Ministry of Defence processed 12 separate invoices for Jenny Mira totaling $103,237.58 - of course, all under ten thousand dollars.

And now, new screenshots reveal that almost exactly two years later, on September 25, 2025, she was easily outmatched by her brother who saw a stampede of 44 invoice approvals for his company Mount Pleasant or MP farms - you can see Brian Mira's email address as the contact.

40 individual invoices processed on that single day, for that single vendor - while his brother was full Minister of Defence. And, of course, all the figures under $10,000, hovering right there at the threshold of reportability: 9:960, 9,964, 9,961, 9,904, 9,961, you get the idea: amounts designed to sit a hair's breadth below the reportability threshold.

And the grand total from that avalanche of invoices?: $389,795.85. That's nearly four hundred thousand dollars funneled to a single vendor in a single day, again, broken down into 44 separate invoices, so that not a single transaction ever breached the $10,000 threshold. Within that are 13 identical figures: $8,511.75 appears 5 times while $9,907.65 appears four times.

It's a pattern we've seen repeated now for two Mira siblings but in two years the scale and the numbers increased almost four fold.

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"I don't know it to be Brian Mira's company, but nevertheless, in when I looked into the company, it happens to belong to another Mira."

"I looked for who it was registered under I believe is Stanley Mira. But nevertheless, it's a Mira. I get the the optics and the, perception of it. So as you alluded to, these payments happen since I became the CEO."

"The volume of payments that were made, as you said on, on one particular day, actually happened to be, invoices are paid when they're submitted."

"Sometimes they are submitted in, lots or in groups, and then we process them and pay them. It's not that on one singular day, however, many items were purchased. It's just that that's when the invoices were submitted so that the payments can be processed. MP farms is one of the, or was one of the dry goods suppliers last year."

"The soldiers themselves, particularly from the BDF and from the Coast Guard, the people that handle the ration stores and that received the items, had some reports against some of the other companies that were also providing dry goods and other, supplies."

"So we chose to continue, with the companies that were providing that were reliable."

CEO Explains Stream of Single-Day Payments

And while that stream of single day straight payments - all under the reportable threshold - would certainly raise any auditor's blood pressure - the CEO explained that there could be a practical explanation.

Jules Vasquez
"But what stands out is that of these 44 invoices, all of them are under the $10,000 threshold right? $9960. We saw that number multiple times, which, we see numbers repeating, right?"

"The same exact figures. And they're all clearly designed to be under the $10,000 threshold. Isn't this a way to escape oversight?"

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"I don't think it's a way to escape oversight. I think it's a way to escape the bureaucracy of getting paid. I think this is a mechanism used by providers to get paid quicker."

Jules Vasquez
"But if you have a contract with the government, sorry to cut you, but if you have a contract with the government, you'll get paid. You know, you can you can use the larger amount with the 18,000 or if it's a in this case this is 400,000. If you have a legitimate contract, it may take a minute, but the government is good for it and you'll get your money."

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"Right. But in that meantime, no, it is balancing whether or not you are able to turn over and provide for the next month or the month after that."

Jules Vasquez
"But you understand how this appears. This is the brother of the minister, Stanley Mira. He's now the minister. He's the full minister of defense. And $400,000 in small payments are approved on a single day. A 393,000. This looks like insider trading. This looks like, preferred treatment for politically favored companies supplying the minister, his brother's ministry."

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"So in terms of optics, I can definitely, understand why from a perception, or a public perception, this would be seen or could be seen as that."

"But the fact of the matter is, at the ministry level, at the CEO down, what I focus on is ensuring we get quality service, quality goods. They're delivered on time and that what is being delivered is what were paid for."

"I can guarantee you that nothing that was paid for was not delivered. All of those items were delivered. We reviewed the quotations submitted to ensure we're getting value for money."

Jules Vasquez
"Are you able to assure us that the ministry did get a.) value for money and the requisite supply of goods for that $393,000 paid out?"

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"Yes, I can. Every single item that was on the quotation, requisition, purchase order, and the waybill."

Was Ministry Led to MP Farms

But how did the Ministry hook up with MP Farms? Yes, the Mira family has long been known as vegetable vendors, but was the CEO steered to choose them as suppliers? We asked him:

Jules Vasquez
"How was MP farms selected? Were you actually were you directed to them?"

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"No. So they were they were supplying before I became, before I became CEO, they were supplying, some items and they were one of the companies that, were not, there were reports written about some of the other companies. And so by virtue of that, the amount of allocation that they received increased, they were reached out to via email and asked if can you provide X, y, and Z?"

"They said, yes, we ensured we got value for money. But at no point was I directed to use MP farms."

Jules Vasquez
"Since Mr Mira is no longer the Minister of Defence, do you all continue to use MP farms, or Mira related companies?"

Francis Usher, CEO - Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"So MP farms currently for this year won the bid for supplying grains: rice, beans and flour I believe."

"They did not win any of the dry goods lots which were what they were providing last year. In addition to grains, I believe. So they didn't win any of the dry goods. But they did win another lot."

Inconsistencies Found in Gun Dealer Invoices

And moving on from the Mira's to another screenshot that came our way: we saw some invoices for a vendor named Pew Pew, formerly a gun dealer that supplied the BDF.

We asked the CEO about inconsistencies with the numbering on their invoices:..

Jules Vasquez
"Again, we saw, big invoice canceled for the $43,875, and then a number of smaller, smaller payments appeared under it. And we know this is a pattern of behavior. What we saw again is that they are now using another nomenclature to, put the same invoice number in twice."

"The system constraint won't allow you to enter the same invoice number. So they put a hyphen beside it to enter the same invoice number and make the same payment into 8511 multiple times. This is only a single screenshot for this particular company, but it is very concerning."

Jules Vasquez
"It is very concerning. Because it shows again a pattern that suggests less than aboveboard behavior. Are you aware of this and what's your response?"

Francis Usher, CEO (2025 -) - Ministry of Defence
"So as it relates to Pew Pew gun store that actually is no longer, a licensed dealer in Belize. I have looked into that particular gun store. I looked into that particular, series of invoices, and those items I can confirm were delivered. I have heard the the rumors of, of other matters. I can't say that at this point in time, it's a legal matter that we're looking into, as it relates to not with, Pew Pew, but with the individual himself."

Jules Vasquez
"Okay, but what do you make of the fact that multiple invoice invoices were, the invoice was reentered under the same name five times, but just with a hyphen to intentionally undermine the system constraints."

Francis Usher, CEO (2025 -) - Ministry of Defence
"So in that particular case, I'll have to look at the, the, the adding up the particulars to see that it adds up to the initial amount. But I can see, what you're alluding to here in terms of internally trying to undermine it. I'll have to look into why that was done. And when I do know, and I can't say that at that time there were issues regarding a particular finance officer who is no longer at the ministry. And these seem to have been certain practices that were routine under his time."

Jules Vasquez
"Will there be, criminal investigation of this person?"

Francis Usher, CEO (2025 -) - Ministry of Defence
"I would have to defer to the. I know that he is, I don't want to speak on on what his current status is."

Officers Recognized at Police Awards Ceremony

Police week is underway and today saw one of its highlights: the police awards ceremony. It's been a few years since the officers have been recognized this way but the ceremony at the Police Training Academy saw hundreds of medals distributed, as well as promotions from sergeants to inspectors. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.

We had questions for the Compol about these promotions, but, as we told you, his handlers only allowed two questions.

YMCA Preparing New Multipurpose Sport Court

They're building something big over at the YMCA, and today we got an early look at what will be their very first multipurpose sport court. Jomarie Lanza spoke to their executive director today at the YMCA, and she gave us more details on their exciting new addition to the Y:

Laparoscopic Training For Medical Professionals

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has partnered with Surgical Outreach For The Americas to provide Belizean doctors, nurses and public health technicians with hands-on training in laparoscopic surgery. Here are the highlights from the training being led by a specialist in Belmopan today.

Groundbreaking for New Trio Village School

A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday in Trio Village, Toledo District, for a school classroom construction project. The building will also double as a hurricane shelter. Here's what the ceremony looked like today.

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