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“I think it’s all political,” says George Groeneveld, chair of the Agriculture Financial Services Corp. board which was dumped Monday by Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier amid charges of lavish spending and dubious practices.

Groeneveld, himself a former agriculture minister for the Progressive Conservatives, was responding Monday evening to the dismissal, and the suspension of three executives who were blasted in a government audit.

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“I’ve been trying to talk to that minister for a year or more,” says Groeneveld. “We never heard a word back. We never had a chance to talk about anything.”

“And then on Monday we hear we’re supposed to be ready for a conference call. What we get is an eight-minute recorded message telling us we were fired.”

(Oneil’s office says it actually was the minister on the line, reading a prepared statement.)

“I think whatever happened is all explainable,” he, Groeneveld, goes on. “But we never had the chance to explain.