Only Two Audit Reports Published in Thirteen Years

Only two audit years—2011 - 2012 and 2015/2016—appear on the Auditor General’s official website; the absence of all other annual reports has forced citizens to rely on the Freedom of Information Act to obtain basic public-finance records.

Under Belize’s Westminster-style governance model, the Auditor General plays a central role in safeguarding public account-ability. The office is responsible for examining the Government’s annual financial statements, verifying whether public funds were spent lawfully, and reporting any irregularities to the National Assembly. These reports are then reviewed by the Public Accounts Committee, forming the backbone of Belize’s transparency and oversight framework. When these audits are produced and tabled on schedule, they provide the public with a reliable, independent account of how ministries and elected officials manage taxpayer funds.

However, for more than a decade, this constitutional cycle has stalled. Most fiscal years carry notices stating that the Auditor General could not issue reports because the Accountant General did not submit the financial statements required under Section 15(1) of the Finance and Audit Reform Act. Other years remain unpublished because completed audits were never tabled in the National Assembly. The result is a prolonged gap in official reporting across nearly thirteen consecutive budget years.

This breakdown has shifted the burden of transparency onto private citizens using FOIA. Public-interest litigant Jeremy Enriquez is among those now seeking information that would ordinarily be available through routine audit publications. His recent FOIA request seeks multi-year records on the Constituency Development Fund, including allocations, disbursements, vouchers, financial statements, oversight documents and internal reports for all 31 constituencies.

The Government indicated its willingness to disclose the requested material but asked for additional time, citing the scale and distribution of records across multiple ministries. While acknowledging the administrative complexity, Enriquez underscored that the FOIA requires an access decision within fourteen days of receipt, separate from the time needed to compile the documents. He signaled his readiness to grant more time for final disclosure once the access request is formally approved.

The exchange highlights how the absence of timely Auditor General reports has transformed FOIA from a supplementary transparency tool into the primary means by which the public can obtain financial information.