A sweeping financial audit of Belmopan’s City Hall has uncovered more than $4.6 million in potentially unaccounted-for funds linked to the final term of former mayor Khalid Belisle, laying bare systemic gaps in governance and accountability that have sparked new political debate in the Belizean capital. Released in June 2026, the audit flags a range of problematic practices, from unapproved land transactions to opaque asset exchanges that left the municipal council facing major financial losses. In an interview with local reporters, current mayor Pablo Cawich, who succeeded Belisle in office, acknowledged that clear wrongdoing emerged from the audit, but stopped short of demanding law enforcement take the former mayor into custody. Cawich detailed that the losses stemmed in large part from undervalued asset deals, many of which were structured as barter arrangements rather than direct cash sales. “When I say sold, I don’t necessarily mean that they were sold at cash exchange. In some cases, it was in exchange of services. For example, I ask you to do a job and then I can’t pay you, so I give you land instead. Again, those types of practices is where the council lost a lot of funding or money because the exchanges were not always one-to-one,” Cawich explained. When pressed directly on whether Belisle should face arrest for the documented irregularities, Cawich deferred to law enforcement and audit oversight bodies, noting that the question of criminal charges falls outside the scope of the current municipal administration. “I can’t necessarily speak to that. I can say personally that wrongdoing was committed. I wouldn’t know if I would go as far as to say anybody should be incarcerated. That is more of a police and auditor’s perspective,” he said. The timing of the audit’s public release has fueled speculation among political observers that the announcement was intended to distract public attention from an ongoing separate controversy involving Mira, a political rival of Belisle. But Cawich rejected that claim outright, emphasizing that the public release of the audit findings was scheduled weeks in advance of the unrelated political controversy breaking. “I don’t see how an allegation like that could be made. This audit is regarding local government. We obviously release information at public meetings, which is when we released it. The public meeting had been scheduled weeks ahead of that time so there is absolutely no correlation between both topics,” Cawich said. This report is based on a transcribed broadcast from local Belizean news, with original quotes retained for accuracy. As the audit process moves forward, questions remain about whether any individual will face formal consequences for the millions in documented losses, and how the findings will shape local political discourse ahead of future municipal elections.