Belize City Mayor Slapped with Corruption Charge

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
Theblackurbantimes.com



Zenaida Moya, The first female mayor of the capital of Belize has been charged with corruption. Belize City is abuzz with talk of the charges. Moya, elected in March 2006, is a member of the United Democratic Party and is Belize City's first female mayor.

She has been charged with forgery and misappropriating funds from the city council, over a quarter of a million dollars to be exact, from the account of the Belize City Council.
Madame mayor claims that the money was used to cover expenses of the Belize City Council but she was not able to provide receipts or other documentation to support her claims. The Auditor General who investigated the Council said he was not furnished with certain documents to validate the expenses and concluded that some of those documents that he did receive were not genuine. Some of the receipts were notes from "one officer to another without any official markings."



Moya is a native of Belize and attended such schools as Pallotti High School and St. John's College before heading to the U.S. to further her education. Moya joined the local Social Security Board in 1995 under a UDP administration, and later the Ministry of Economic Development, working in both cases as an economist. With the accession of the PUP to power in 1998, Moya was moved up to Registrar of Cooperatives and Credit Unions in 2002.



During the 2005 unrest in Belize, Moya, then an officer in the National Trade Union Congress of Belize participated in the January 2005 strikes and shutdowns precipitated by Musa. She faced harsh criticism from fellow members for speaking out against the Musa People's United Party . This did little to sway Moya who later moved on to local politics.