Tonight, we're looking deep into the BDF's supply chains to see if Ministerial connections play a role beyond former Minister Oscar Mira.
7News has obtained a leaked spreadsheet detailing the official BDF tender allocations for 2023 through 2024. While the documents show the Mira-owned Mount Pleasant Fresh Produce and Mira's Fruits and Vegetables on the roster, they emerge as minority suppliers-taking in a combined $1.3 million out of the total $12.4 million budget.
So who got a bigger slice of the supply pie, and did they also have a political connection at the Ministry of Defence? Well, there's a company named Kukulkan which got 18% of the ration supply, and we're told that also has a political connection-but not to former Minister Oscar Mira. We'll be checking into this.
Tonight, we are also tracking a paper trail involving this Mitsubishi L200 pickup, photographed this morning outside the Ministry of Defence. The vehicle was reportedly part of a four-pickup fleet acquired by the Ministry in 2021.
While we can't confirm who supplied it, a Smart Stream leak from December of 2021 shows ten separate invoices to the Ministry of Defence for a Mitsubishi pickup from electrical contractor F.T. Williams, each priced at exactly $9,603. Those invoices were grouped into two distinct batches of five and pushed through on just two days, triggering a total payout of $96,030.
While F.T. Williams is primarily an electrical firm-with familial ties to the Mira family-it remains unclear how many vehicles this $96,000 payout actually covered. If it was for a single pickup, the price tag is on the high side, as a duty-free Mitsubishi L200 typically retails for around $80,000 on the local market.
We pressed F.T. Williams for clarification today regarding the nature of the transaction. We also questioned the Ministry's CEO, who stated he could not verify the details without access to the files-which are currently in the hands of the Auditor General.
But we're also looking at a car dealership which multiple reports tell us is linked to the Mira family. It's called MW Motor Imports, and car dealers tell us the initials likely point to the owners' names.
7News has also learned that MW Motor Imports competed in a bid to supply Oscar Mira's Ministry of Home Affairs with 15 pickups in March of this year. The MW Imports bid was for $1.157 million. But ultimately, no contract was awarded due to defects in the bidding process.
