Some Budget Points

For the past five years we have been force-fed with high doses of Programme Based Budgeting , the Ease of Doing Business Index, labour and fiscal reforms to be told now by the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report that we are still being burdened by an inefficient government bureaucracy and an inefficient labour market.

En partant du deficit budgetaire - a reply

Dear Sir

In your article titled “En partant du déficit budgétaire ” dated 5^th October, you claim that “  une expansion budgétaire induit un déficit commercial et une appréciation du taux de change. On feint de l’ignorer car il est plus facile de blâmer la politique monétaire que de critique le ministère des finances  ». 

However, these do not corroborate with the data.

Need for new think-tanks

            At a round table  meeting  in the last week of August  at the Link, Ebene on « Appropriate monetary and fiscal policies for export-led growth », organised by  Mauritius Export Association (MEXA),  “les bons techniciens” of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) were arguing that  there were no cause for alarm  and that we could continue with business as usual.

Titbits: The MedPoint Scam; Appreciating Rupee: The Dutch Disease;The Monetary Policy Stance: A Pause; MTPA: Failing to deliverThe Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment report for Mauritius

The MedPoint Scam: Flouting the rules

If the officials of the concerned ministries had abided to the guidelines/rules of the Investment Project Process Manual (IPPM) issued in accordance with the Finance and Audit Act 2008, there would not have been any scandal whatsoever. The IPPM aims at organizing the Investment Project Process by developing a single window system for project approval and establishing best practices for investment expenditure in the Budget.

Titbits:A Long-Term Strategic Plan; Special Funds; Appreciating Real Exchange Rate;Worrying trends.

A Long-Term Strategic Plan

As the economy limps along at the back of the international field, our dismal record in the implementation of capital projects continues. Indeed, we continue to register unsatisfactory progress on the completion of critical infrastructure targets.

Titbits :Changing the rules of the game; Parastatal reform; FDI takes a hit;PBB still struggling in “deliver­ology”; Repo rate increase: A cautionary approach .

Changing the rules of the game

If our friends, the TINAs, (There Is No Alternatives), intent on getting off the hook, in their right to reply, continuously change the rules of the game to prop up their statements, it tends to portray a deliberate attempt at obfuscating the debate because they are short of arguments.

Getting our priorities right

      The TINAs have cleverly deflected some awkward questions with an easy grace by simplifying the issue as one of poor management rather than a lack of funds. It portrays an incorrect perception on the issue which pertains more to the problem of getting their priorities right rather than that of funding or poor management. Indeed decision-making is a team-work with civil servants doing their part and policy-makers theirs. What if our TINAwallahs- the top civil servants- have failed in doing their part- that they have mismanaged the whole process of decision-making ? Let me explain.!