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Well, they weren't. And the auditor found other notable deviations from the HRCU's regulations which guide the lending practices. Jules Vasquez reports: Wendy Castillo - she's the first female president of the Holy Redeemer Credit Union in over 50 years - and presides over a powerful institution - with over 29 million dollars in profits, 800 million dollars in assets and 70 thousand members. But, an internal audit report obtained by 7News raised some flags around a loan that president Castillo got from the institution. It's a 622 thousand dollar loan for her sole proprietorship business Belize Pro Lab for start-up capital, equipment and operational expenses. That company claimed it had a contract from NHI through a partnership with the Belize Family Life Association. But the contract was never provided. The report notes "the projections were not substantiated as no contractual agreement was furnished detailing the terms and/ or payment arrangement for BPL services." It also adds, "Belize Family Life Association letter confirmed partnership with BPL; however, contractual agreement with NHI was not furnished confirming what supplies/services being contracted/rendered and price." Nonetheless the loan was disbursed in June of 2024 without the contract provided and without legal fees paid before the disbursement. The internal auditor notes that "Castillo presented her loan to the Board of Directors...as noted in the minutes dated May 1, 2024.It is unclear from the meeting minutes if she was present for the discussion of the loan." The auditor notes that there is no clear indication that she was recused from the meeting when the loan was discussed. We also asked the General Manager in an email but he responded that he could not discuss any client's confidential records or information - even if it is the president. The auditor found that key basic documents were not provided and neither were Financials which were an explicit condition to this loan. We asked Castillo herself about these omissions but she would only say - via text message, quote, "There were no red flags of the sorts...all procedures were followed, all requirements were met according to our credit loan requirements. The auditor also found that key internal forms were not prepared - again we asked the general manager Clement Usher but he declined to provide that information and also threatened to sue us to get our source of information and to use this information. But, in her comments via text the President said "I am the President of the Board, I should be under every scrutiny... that's (the) good governance platform that we follow." But we must now square that against this Internal Auditor report which found that "This loan is not in compliance with the requirements of the Credit Union Act, CBB mandates or HRCU's Loan Policy and Procedures." We also reached out to the Central Bank of Belize - which regulates Credit Unions - but they had no comment.
