And yesterday, Minister Orlando Habet-in responding to the allegation that one of his Ministry's most senior technical officers was extorting a forester-said sometimes a Minister just doesn't know what's happening until after the fact:
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"Many times we do not become aware of certain situations until after the fact. We have a very large ministry, maybe one of the largest ministries, and so I would get reports and updates on the status of certain situations post what is happening. I cannot be on every application for whether it is the Forest Department or the Department of the Environment or the National Biodiversity Office or the Sustainable Development Unit, which is large, and so we work together. We have meetings on a bi-weekly basis with all the heads of department and that's where most of the information comes to us and how we discuss the programs that will follow the policy direction that we have set in place to move forward."
