House Meeting Ends in Heated Exchange Over Procurement Scandal

After nearly twelve hours of debate, Friday’s House Meeting ended not with a quiet adjournment, but with a sharp political exchange. Leader of the Opposition Tracy Panton used her adjournment remarks to place on record fresh concerns over the ongoing Ministry of Defense procurement scandal. She spoke for just over fifteen minutes, pressing the issue and calling for accountability. But when Prime Minister John Briceño rose to respond, he shifted the spotlight back onto Panton, questioning her role in the Brad’s boledo contract. That response triggered a back and forth between the two leaders, turning a late-night sitting into another round of political sparring over transparency, responsibility, and who has the moral authority to call out wrongdoing.

 

Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“Over recent weeks, an extraordinary volume of information, public records, financial documents, procurement records, corporate registration and investigative reporting have emerged into the public domain. Collectively, these raise serious questions about whether public funds are being managed lawfully, transparently, prudently and exclusively in the public’s interest. There is apparent fraud from the information I have available in my possession. Mr. Speaker, no responsible parliament can look away.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“And the leader of the opposition, she was in charge of the Ministry of Economic Development when they.”

 

Tracy Panton

“On a point of order, I will interrupt you and I will continue to interrupt you. He will not continue to impute improper motive against a member of this house that is baseless. Not because he is called the prime minister, because he is compromised. But he will not do that to me. He cannot impute improper motives to me.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“The prime minister use to like say, the hog that bawl the tek lick. The point we are making here is that under their government, which she was a member of, they managed to give the people’s boledo to a private group.”

 

As we’ve reported, the fate of Oscar Mira and Florencio Marin Jr. now depends on what an ongoing audit reveals. The Briceño administration says it will use those findings to decide what comes next for the two former Ministers of Defense.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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