Yes, these very people who never walked the talk, on the contrary they did the opposite when they were at the helm ; they are now talking big on transparency and effectiveness of our institutions and even accountability, which they now believe should be monitored and enforced systematically with sanctions for noncompliance.
In this very context , my friend Raj has commented “How do we fact-check who are the true apostles of truth & justice versus the mere opportunistic Scavengers & Complicits of the rotten status quo we are decrying ? Like those who are conveniently jumping on the bandwagon of popular/populist wave of present discontent to foster their power hungry agendas? Easy. Just check their track record when they were in power”
Check out on one of these opportunistic bean counters.
On the issue of the effectiveness and transparency of our institutions, our man from IMF, ex-FS , states in today’s l’express that “ …il faut des personnes compétentes sur les conseils d’administration et le président du conseil d’administration ne doit s’ingérer dans les matières courantes”
The sharp political and economic commentator, the late MOHAMAD VAYID, had this to say on the tandem ex-FS/Sithanen administration of MOFED
« On parle de méritocratie, de compétence, de justice. Est-ce qu'il a respecté ces critères dans la nomination de ses copains aux postes importants sous son ministère ? Un bref échantillon : un moulin à leçons particulières, diplôme en physique de Chandigarh, imposé comme Senior Advisor aux finances, Président de SICOM, du Gaming Board ; un néophyte à la tête de la DBM pour succéder à un autre favori dont l'administration a été catastrophique ; les lettres adressées à son ministère qui restent sans réponses ; les voyages complaisants et onéreux de ses collaborateurs, alors qu'il interdit aux autres officiels d'aller en mission malgré les obligations internationales de leurs charges. Sans oublier une tentative, heureusement avortée, de mainmise sur la fonction publique. Il avait fait du ministère des Finances un super ministère, n'ayant de compte à rendre à personne.”
Our Ex-FS adds « ..il nous manque un mécanisme pour sanctionner les personnes et les institutions fautives… »
But the IMF report titled “Implementing Programme-Based Budgeting: Next Steps” by Pokar Khemani, Stephen Mayes and Lewis Hawke, dated February 2008, recommended the urgent amendment of the Finance and Audit Act (FAA) to include , among others, a well defined set of incentives, sanctions and penalties to ensure compliance-sanctions, institutional and personal, that are : (a) pre-specified, (b) commensurate to the offence and (c) non-discretionary.
These were not implemented. Guess Why? Our ex-FS was not that stupid to shoot himself in the foot !
Let me give you some few examples of his track record !
Hedging :He was one of the persons invovled in the hedging Saga at Air Mauritius and STC, (he was a member of the Board of directors of Air Mts and a representative of MOFED was on the STC Board at that time). Seesungkur in a reply to a PQ confirmed that “ ….decisions on hedging were usually taken by the Board of Directors.. ….the STC entered into a swap agreement for the provisioning of Mogas and gasoil in 2008. The loss on Mogas was Rs 519 million and that of the Gasoil was Rs 4.2 billion, totalling Rs 4.7 billion.
The Microsoft deal: And then you had the Microsoft contract where some Rs 223 millions were squandered. The Audit Report had revealed “les magouilles” des Microsoftware licenses bought without any study being carried out on the software needs of Government ; the price of the Microsoft Office licenses were excessively on the high side costing nearly Rs 31,600 as compared to its market price of Rs 6,000. Furthermore some 7000 licensed softwares remained idle at the Ministry of Finance unutilized. Going against the advice of the Ministry of IT, they had rushed into this agreement with Microsoft before the end of June 2008.
Stimulus Packages which had a partisan flavour: you recall the largesse of the Stimulus Packages which were being coordinated and managed by MOFED. The stimulus package only provided temporary reprieve to enterprises without any guarantee that these firms will in future be able to stand on their own. These firms had not committed themselves to any restructuring plan, digne de ce nom. There were very little measures to improve the competitiveness of labour and capital in both the short and long term. A more visionary leadership would have implemented an emergency response while laying the ground for long-term measures… They ended up approving millions of Rupees for RS Denim and Rs Fashion or World Knits (and INFINITY BPO and River Heights) while acknowledging that they were not sure of recouping our money !!!
Et il a le culot de nous sermoner that « En même temps, dans une démocratie, il ne faut pas seulement en vouloir aux politiciens. Le manque d'action reflète aussi une certaine indifférence de la population. »
In the absence of a Freedom of Information Act , is the information about the state and activities of the institutions reaching the public ? When there is any query in the National Assembly about Air Mts or MT, they come out with such convenient smokescreens that they are not in a position to divulge any information as these are private companies...
Our ex-FS should be the last person to talk about “manque d’action”. What did he do in the Ameena Rojooa case? She had accused a high cadre of the Ministry of Finance , a close protégé of his and Sithanen and ex-close collaborator of Dev Manraj, of having given the instructions to her on the NPF transfers. This cadre had till now been able to hide his close proximity to Manraj and others and the shady deals in Mozambique. Ameena Rojoa , and the other such recalcitrants, were dumped in the OPSG unit, far away from the main MOFED headquarters.
And they dare talk about Accountability !!! Of course, not when they are in power ! What would you say of such a person who agrees to divert some of the loan money obtained under the WB PERU (Public Enterprise Reform Unit) project to pay for the pension of the then CEO of the Competition Commission(a UK expert) ? And , il a le culot of talking about the reform of public enterprises when the 18-million dollars loan from the World Bank for the PERU project had to be cancelled because it was not delivering much in terms of results.
Yes , Raj, you are right-“Consistency in Values and Credibility matter. Not just rhetorics & polished accents. The latter is more the weapon of demagogue”.
