(Published in l'express.....)
On the occasion of the fourth World Statistics Day, Statistics Mauritius (SM) organized a workshop on October 22 . This event was an opportunity to review the institution's role in producing reliable data and its place in public policy-making.
Speaking to the press, Dhaneshwar Damry, the Junior Minister of Finance, emphasized the importance of credible statistics to support economic reforms. “The decisions we make must be based on data. There must be no doubt about their quality and integrity,” he said. According to him, efforts have been made to strengthen the independence and reliability of Statistics Mauritius, particularly through international audits.
Almost a year after the change of regime, no legal action has been taken against Padayachy’s henchmen-the top-ranking officials of MoF and SM who had manipulated the GDP and fiscal figures.
Surprisingly, Mukesh Dawoonauth, the acting director of Statistics Mauritius has the nerve to defend the methodology used and the audacity to argue that "We follow international recommendations. 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬." ( All that in the presence of the Junior minister of Finance who had published the "𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒚"(SOE) document, which found that GDP data was grossly exaggerated and revised it downwards by Rs 21 bn (3%) for 2023 and Rs36 bn (5%) for 2024)
Guaranteeing reliability, you said ! In Sep 24, SM estimated public investments at Rs40 bn for 2023 and at Rs50 bn for 2024. In Sep 25, SM figures are now down to Rs25 bn and Rs26 bn, respectively. The overestimation of public investments by SM in Sep 24, amounting to 61% for 2023 and 92% for 2024, was an outrageous and fraudulent exaggeration. The falsification of public investment statistics by SM started in Sept 23, even when it was then known that a major Govt project announced in the 2023 Budget - the Metro Express extension to St Pierre and La Vigie, would not be going ahead. Not to mention the oversestimation of the exports of services figures from 2021 to 2024!
Your processes which included the trimming and cooking up of data 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 . 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔.
Your GDP estimates still reflect large discrepancies between the expenditure and production approaches. These statistical discrepancies have risen to over 5% of GDP; let us hope that with the help of international recommendations you will be able to refine GDP estimation.
The junior Minister , who has taken these tricksters under his wing, should let us know when is he coming forward with the 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚..
