And in the Ministry of Defence, they were cutting that pie into some very thin slices to pay politically favored companies which supplied rations and uniforms. We're talking about the thousands of sub-ten-thousand-dollar payments-so many that even the Prime Minister was surprised when we told him there were over a thousand sub-ten-thousand-dollar payments to Mira-related companies. Well, actually, it's closer to two thousand-and that's just what has been leaked.
Today, the PM-who was not in one of his feisty moods-conceded that there's reason for public concern, but context is also important:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Since there's been this outcry, rightly so, from the public, I think we need to do all the way to 2015 and try to see what exactly is happening, because this under-$10,000 where the ministry has been doing that to get food for the BDF seems to have been a practice that has been going on for some time, and now I saw on the news where somebody was making the point that it even continued up to this year. Well, now that I've been involved as the Minister and I sat down with the CEO and he explained they went 13 times to the Contractor General to ensure they could get it right when they return the bids, and he's very pleased with the cooperation from the Contractor General, she has been extremely helpful. But what happened is that when they sent the recommendations from the bids that were taking place, the Ministry of Finance took very long to respond. The Ministry of Finance may have their own reasons, but the point is that they were not responding and the BDF eat every day and the only way they could be able to keep up giving the food, he explained to me, is to be able to ordering under these $10,000. Now, you could question as to who were the people they're asking, and so that's another matter, and so that's for the Contractor General to deal with. I'm just trying to explain why is it they had to continue during this time simply to be able to keep food on the table."
