In a significant announcement that expands the scope of ongoing corruption investigations into Belize’s defence sector, Prime Minister John Briceño has confirmed that a planned forensic audit of Ministry of Defence finances will stretch all the way back to 2015, a timeline that covers both the previous United Democratic Party (UDP) administration and his own ruling People’s United Party (PUP) government.
Briceño first shared the expanded audit mandate during the PUP’s National Party Council meeting over the weekend, and reiterated the commitment in a CTV3 interview that was broadcast live to voters via his personal Facebook page. The move comes in the wake of the unfolding “Mira Millions” scandal, which erupted in June 2026 after former UDP national security minister John Saldivar published a series of screenshots linking defense contracts to companies owned by family members of Oscar Mira, the former PUP Minister of State for Defence. Since the scandal broke, additional documentation and corporate ownership trails have emerged that deepen questions about irregular procurement practices in the ministry.
The extended audit places Saldivar, who led the Ministry of National Security during the UDP tenure, firmly under the scope of investigators. Briceño noted that ongoing preliminary inquiries have already uncovered alarming preliminary accounts of irregular contracting during that period, including reports that the Belize Defence Force (BDF) almost exclusively worked with a single vendor without the required public transparency and financial reporting.
“We have been hearing some horror stories. Apparently the BDF at that time dealt mostly with one company and there were very little reporting. We will ask the Auditor General, since you are doing this, how about we go to 2015 and then we will see,” Briceño told reporters.
The Prime Minister added that he is already dissatisfied with what has emerged from initial probes into the Mira Millions affair, as well as separate allegations of improper payments processed through the government’s simplified $10,000 low-value procurement threshold, which is designed to bypass full competitive bidding for small purchases.
In a notable break from common political practice that sees ruling parties limit corruption audits to the previous opposition government, Briceño emphasized that his own PUP administration will not be exempt from scrutiny. He framed the broad audit as a fulfillment of the PUP’s campaign pledge to govern differently from previous administrations, arguing that endemic financial misconduct in government must end through tangible accountability measures.
“This kind of behavior has to stop, we can’t continue this. I speak from my end, we as the PUP, we said we are going to be different. And we can’t just say it, we have to do it,” Briceño said.