And while Shal stresses that it's about the man who's out in the fields doing the work - what about the man in the office who made the mistake by posting the accusatory text message to his WhatsApp status and putting the whole affair on front street?
When we asked the PM about the error his Cab-Sec made, he explained that he's the one who got the message from a Mexican number.
He sent it to the Cab Sec to follow up - and that's where - with one slip of the finger - it ended up on his WhatsApp status:
Reporter
"PM, we have heard allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Rural Development, of course. So would you be able to comment on that?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Actually, that was sent to me from a number out of Mexico. So obviously, when you see that kind of thing, you know that something is wrong. I sent it to the Cabinet Secretary, so then he could forward it to both the CEO and to the minister. And I guess he was in a hurry, and he put it out in the status, and then he brought it over quickly when he was told that it was on the status. But the truth of it, and I'm sure that the ministry, they would talk about it, making allegations, doing business with Benny's, and I had somebody check with Benny's, and they're saying that they have done no business with the Ministry of Rural Transformation. So obviously, somebody's just trying to create some kind of mischief."
Reporter
"So could it have been like a scammer or something?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"No, I don't know if it's a scammer, but I think somebody just got a Mexican number and sent the message."
"The irony is that most of the monies that is being spent through rural transformation is, I think, from the EU. And so they have a very, very rigorous process on how you go about doing that. So again, it's somebody trying to create mischief, not really knowing how you go about doing this procurement."
We note that yesterday the Cab Sec told us he was the one who got the message from a Mexican number.
