Press Version: Budget 2012: Colourable Accounting

     The IMF in its two latest reports on the Mauritian Economy (Public Expenditure and Financial      Accountability (PEFA) Assessment and the 2011 Article IV Consultation—Staff Report) pointed fingers at some of the curious arithmetic in our budget numbers; it noted that the chronic underspending on the capital side was not allowed to flow through to the budget bottom line, resulting in smaller deficits. Government reappropriated the funds and transferred them to a set of special funds.

Budget 2012: Short-term fixes

The IMF in its two latest reports on the Mauritian Economy (Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment and the 2011 Article IV Consultation -Staff Report) pointed fingers at some of the curious arithmetic in our budget numbers.

Titbits: The private sector “fait son cinema »;The Budget: Effets d’annonce;The PBB, again and again;Integration of Budget and Planning

The private sector “fait son cinema »
Mauritius drops three ranks in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) 2012 index and this has suddenly awakened our private sector to the fact that we have been lagging behind on reforms. Now they have something to exhibit for the morosity in domestic and foreign investment. (The assumed positive correlation between the EoDB index and FDI is doubtful; China (91th), India (132th),South Africa(35th) have no dearth of foreign investment.) The private sector lobby is already at work to get rid of the capital gains tax and other taxes introduced by the previous Minster of Finance.

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.