But the spinoff of the corrupt supply lines feeding into the BDF could be far-reaching. But could they have spilled over into the Ministry of Home Affairs when Musa was Minister?
We're talking about the supply of military boots. We've already shown you how the BDF got over a thousand of them for well over a million dollars with no contract signed, just dozens of sub-ten-thousand-dollar payments.
We asked former Home Affairs Minister Musa about it today since his Ministry was supplied by the same company, Tropicana:
Jomarie Lanza, Reporter
"As the former Minister of Police Department, what can you say about the supply of boots and uniforms? Since we are informed, the Ministry of Home Affairs sometimes uses the same suppliers as the BDF."
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration & Labour
"Yeah, while I was the Minister of Home Affairs, we had, I think, 2 or 3 different suppliers. If you recall, we were also the Ministry of New Growth Industries and on one occasion, the Ministry even made a policy decision that we are going to purchase boots locally made. That company was Umbra Land and they did supply us with boots locally. They were a little cheaper than the imported boots, but at the end of the day, we had to make a decision based on the officer's satisfaction with those boots. And so after we did that first order, we went back to the supplier. Like I said, there were 2 or 3 different suppliers."
Jomarie Lanza
"So was one of those suppliers Tropicana by chance?"
Kareem Musa
"I believe so, yes, and I think the boots, if I recall again, I'm not at the Ministry anymore, but I'm sure you can verify the brand I think was Garmont because that was the one that the police officers preferred."
Jomarie Lanza
"What was the nature of the arrangement? Did they go through a normal procurement process, offered the winning bid, and then received a supply contract from the Ministry?"
Kareem Musa
"So I don't get involved in procurement whatsoever. And so that would be left to the Ministry, the CEO and the procurement unit at the Ministry. So I don't know what, I'm sure at some point they had to have had a bid and different estimates provided from different companies, but I can't tell you who all applied."
Jomarie Lanza
"Have you ever urged suppliers to your ministries who can't get paid to make out their invoices for less than $10,000, so that it could be sped along?"
Kareem Musa
"Absolutely not, no."
From what we have heard anecdotally, the police were not too happy with the Garmont boots. But we'll be looking into it.
