Dear Editor,

I have followed with interest the conclusions reached by The People’s Campaign and one of your opinion contributors regarding the new airport deal.

Of particular concern was the allegation that the Finance Minister had fuzzied up the figures. If indeed the Minister has used fuzzy accounting practices to “mislead investors” or “to inflate earnings or earnings estimates to attract investors” then this is indeed a very serious accusation and one wholly worthy of its own “gate” moniker... fuzzygate has a pleasing ring to it.

But then I realised that right here at my fingertips is the greatest source of information ever devised.

That I could easily delve into the dark recesses of finance and procurement in order to see for myself what on earth could have compelled the Minister to engage in such nefarious activities.

Within a split second, much faster than it used to take to download naughty pictures, I had entered the realm of The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and The Development of a Fuzzy Decision Support System for Commodity Acquisition Using the Fuzzy Analytic Process (Fuzzy ANP).

Now having majored in History at University I admit that 99 per cent of this passed straight over me but what I did glean was that fuzzy ANP is indeed a model used in vendor selection and procurement for large projects.

It attempts to make sense of imprecise and uncertain project requirements in order to balance a limited budget. Fuzzy ANP is “an intelligent approach to vendor selection which takes into consideration quantitative and qualitative elements in evaluating vendor alternatives” *Development of a fuzzy decision support system for commodity acquisition using fuzzy analytic process by Semra Boran and Kerim Goztepe.

Now, Mr Editor, I ask you what is the more likely scenario? That the Minister used fuzzy accounting practices to “mislead investors” and publically admitted doing so to the CCC or that he was modelling “imprecise or uncertain project requirements in order to balance a limited budget”?

Inquiring minds need to know!

Befuzzled