And while he was not tuned in to the news during his convalescence, he didn't quite go Rip Van Winkle.
Fonseca had heard about the thousands of sub-10,000 dollar payments that were being made at the Ministry of Defence. We asked him whether or not he ever practiced anything like that. He said that it is not the minister's place to get involved in his finance officer's practices:
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education, Culture, Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade
"I learned a long, long time ago to, to stay away from the finance officer and the ministries. As you know, the CEO was already accounting officers for the ministries. So as the minister, my job is is policy. My job is is not to interfere in contracts and to interfere with the finance officer. The only time we meet really is when budget time, when they say, listen, we need you to go to cabinet and fight for for our budget. And these are the priorities. So, you know, I, I'm not engaged, as you said. I'm aware of these thresholds. And, yes, I know that there's some level of abuse that's takes place, in the public service, with these thresholds, but there I think, listen, I, I, I certainly support the actions that have been taken so far. Placing these substantive ministers on leave, and then ensuring that a proper audit is done. And that's important. We have to make sure that it's the audit is done properly, that it's, it's it's a comprehensive audit. And wherever that leads, we have to allow it to lead, you know, to go, wherever that leads coming out of. So I, I support those actions. I think those are the appropriate actions at this stage. As more information becomes available, there may, may be a need for further action."
