And about those plans to change the system through which the ministries make their payments, as you have been hearing, government is putting big energy into developing a central procurement unit with a transparency feature built into it:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Next week Tuesday in Cabinet the people that are working to set up the central procurement unit will come and make a presentation and explain to Cabinet how exactly this is going to work and it's going to be more open, it's going to be transparent, and we are going to make sure that we get value for money. More importantly they're going to be stiff penalties and I think probably even jail time they told me if people deliberately try to circumvent the system. So that is one issue but also the law and the policies, the policies have to be in line with the law, the solicitor general was there and she pointed out in one instance where one of the official ways we do it, and she said listen but this is what the law says. In one instance they're saying the minister supposed to approve, the law, and the policy is saying they don't do that, something to that effect but there's a conflict and she said we have to fix the law. So we've agreed, all of them are going to come together to look at wherever there may be a conflict, wherever there may be something that's not fully ventilated or explained in the law and policy, we're going to fix it and I hope within the next few weeks, or a month or two, they can come back to Cabinet and say this is what we discussed with you all and this is how we can fix it."
