And our next story is not about irregular payments, but unusual items on the BDF menu. Do the soldiers really get lobster, jumbo shrimp, and baby back ribs? We saw it in the 2023-2024 tender which was leaked to us. So we asked the CEO about it:
Jules Vasquez:
"You know, we saw on the tender we reviewed-the one that was leaked to us-we saw certain things like baby back ribs, fish fillet, lobster, shrimp, the jumbo shrimp as well. You know, that we saw bacon as well. Were these supplied to the soldiers or were they for someone else? Are soldiers eating lobster? I would hope they are, but are they?"
Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"So all of the items you just listed, I would class them as luxury items. I have no issues with the soldiers, the sailors, the officers, the warrant officer, the NCOs getting them for formal events, for regimental dinners, for things like that. But I did notice when I became CEO last year that these were things that were on the delivery schedule, which I immediately stopped. And you can, you can ask the BDF when I went there and I said, 'No, no, no,' I was like, 'Look, I disagree that these should be things that are regularly bought.' Because even if they're only used every few months, why would we buy, for example, baby back ribs and allow it to catch freezer burn before we use it? It doesn't make sense. We're not going to buy it every month, so we immediately stopped buying baby back ribs, the shrimp, the conch, the lobster-all of that we stopped buying when I became CEO. And I told them, if you want those items for special events, all you need to do is send it up with the justification, and we'll procure them. It's not a problem, but we won't buy them regularly, because I don't believe these are things that need to be regularly in stock."
Jules Vasquez:
"And shrimp? Because I know that you are buying jumbo shrimp, but when I talked to soldiers they say the only shrimp they get are the kind found in the noodle soup in the cup of noodles."
Francis Usher:
"So I can confirm personally that during the same time, early on in my CEO tenure, when I was making the changes to what the type of meats and seafood that were bought on a monthly basis, I went to the walk-in freezer and I saw boxes and boxes of jumbo shrimp, and I said, 'Why are we buying so much every month if they're just sitting here?' And they were only used for special events. They are used for various regimental dinners. That one I can say that I have eaten in my career in the BDF, so... But we stopped buying it on a monthly basis and we started buying it on an event basis."
