Vexed Bermoothes

These “kickback cheques” just don’t add up (get it?)

The Minister of Works says that the Permanent Secretary only just discovered them on February 4 and they rushed immediately to tell the Governor.  Shocked!

Guys, it might be time to renew those newspaper subscriptions, cuz they reported on January 22 – more than two weeks ago – that the cheques had been found in the course of an audit and turned over the police.

This was no sudden surprise or rushed reaction;  someone’s been carefully thinking through the strategy on this.

The whole deal smells fishy.  It is so contrived.  The anger at the newspapers is so choreographed.  Rather than being a “scam to tarnish” the politicians, you have to wonder if it were not actually a counter scam to tarnish the media.

This ain’t The Gold Standard™.

Our reputation was already tarnished after the Son of the Soil leaks about BHC scandal … and Government’s spasmodic reactions.  But this tops it.

To think all this would be avoided if we had adequate contracting standards and transparency laws.  We spend all our energy on sideshows and coverups, in great murky distrust, instead of minding the shop.

Meanwhile, the business development people in Switzerland must be laughing their little glockenspiels off.