This is a post created for the boys; it is merely ceremonial and it will not not create an improved environment for ensuring consumer protection. It does not go far enough in its thinking on financial regulation – split into financial business conduct regulation and prudential regulation – as it is now being practised, for example, in UK and Australia. We doubt whether it will present a better and stronger scope for redress . The Ombudsperson office has lesser powers than those provided by section 96(5) of the Banking Act.
It’s more of a return for favour done. You recall that Dan Maraye was one of the few who had agreed with the measure to transfer Rs 18 billion from the Special Reserves Fund of the BoM to repay part of the external debt (Rs 18 billion) of the country. He justified his argument by referring to the ‘Report of Expert Committee to Review the Extant Economic Capital Framework under the chairmanship of Dr Bimal Jalan of the Reserve Bank of India.
In trying to please PJ’s regime and surely, in the expectation of some future reward, he mixed up (at that time we thought it was not deliberate) the Special Reserve Fund with the foreign exchange reserves.
The Bimal Jalan Report did recommend a limit (and a one-off surplus reserve transfer) to the transfer of funds from the Special Reserve Fund. Actually the Report, translated in our context, meant: (a) Mauritius should set a minimum economic capital reserves requirement and (b) Mauritius should also forbid distribution of unrealized valuation reserves to Government.
As you see, the path to such nominations is not always paved with good intentions; it has more to do with “chatwaing”, Another example is our friend Ken at the helm of the useless EDB rewarded for delivering EIAs รก gogo, for`le betonnage" and the fragmenting of our eco-system into bits and pieces.
At a monthly salary Rs 340,000, it would have been more appropriate if the opportunity had been given to some of the upcoming smart and experienced technicains from our regulatory authorities who are more likely to have the drive and energy to upraise the institution to the required standards.
P.S: Input from an insider-BoM : He was the only governor who was kicked out of office for incompetence and the only governor during whose tenure even the private sector was fed up with the continuous depreciation of the rupee.
i think that summarises it all.
