For his second Budget Speech Mr. Padayachy has presented another document replete with hollow announcements; another document with no concrete measures to address the real challenges that Mauritius is facing; another document that betrays our people and demonstrates government’s lack of vision and foresight, a sure path to failure.

I had sincerely hoped that Government would have presented a plan to unleash the economy, – unfortunately, a shattered hope now -, to combat corruption and wastage of public funds, a plan to reduce the greatest debt burden in our country’s history and introduce intergenerational justice, a plan to put an end to and prevent wastage of scanty funds in wrongly prioritised areas, a plan to re-establish our credibility on the international scene as Mauritius cannot be left in the infamous list of “autocratic countries” as well as on a legion of grey and black lists, a plan to incentivise investment in new areas like Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing by creating a whole innovation ecosystem not by persisting in a real-estate rut with the construction of a mini-skyscraper.

This government has had months to think through and come up with relevant solutions to squarely address the challenges of the day. Most recently, they had the services of the IMF, free of charge, to guide them in a logical financial policy to offset the amateurism of an inexperienced appointee occupying the seat of one the key institutions of this country. But to no avail.

I quote a phrase from the Mo Ibrahim report which captures where Mauritius is heading QUOTE “Moving in the opposite direction, Mauritius’s Overall Governance score declines at an increasing rate, driven by weakened social protection and deteriorated human rights.” UNQUOTE

How effortless it is to sit down in Cabinet and flip on the lockdown mode, while Mauritians have made lots of sacrifice since the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic. Many have lost their jobs. Many more see joblessness staring at them mercilessly. Sadly, many died. I am here thinking of the 15 dialysis patients who died.

On the other hand, some of our economic sectors will be decimated. I am thinking here of our SMEs. Mauritians were expecting a budget that would chart out a plan for a reasonably good future; they were looking to the Government for hope!

But this budget does not instil in Mauritians a sense of accountability or the importance of pursuing excellence through professionalism. On the contrary, the Prime Minister has introduced a new culture of irresponsibility since HENCEFORTH no one is responsible for anything at all. No one is responsible for the BETAMAX catastrophe!

I now come to the issue of the quality and the dire state in which our institutions find themselves. Let me at the outset state the obvious: the higher the quality of government institutions, the better the economic and social development. This is what explains the desire of all countries to give priority to the continuous improvement of their institutions by regularly reassessing their mandate and ensuring that they are delivering value for money.

Unfortunately, apart from the failure and inefficiency of our national institutions there is a very disquieting situation which emerged in the answer given by the Prime Minister to the PNQ on ICTA’s half-baked consultation paper. The Prime Minister’s reply has created a culture of irresponsibility where a board of a government institution is not accountable for anything it does. In his reply the Prime Minister was not at all aware, let alone alarmed, that ICTA’s intention would have compromised the internet HTTPS protocol by introducing a fatal weakness in the world’s internet security.

Besides this lack of accountability and the “new culture of irresponsibility “, the major problem of this government is its complete lack of vision, strategy, and a clear action plan regarding the re-engineering of public institutions and state enterprises. This has left the door open to projects with extremely low economic return; projects which are not useful to the population at large, thereby resulting in birthing white elephants with no relevant socio-economic goals and which will be an unbearable burden for our economy and the future generations.

In the past our public institutions as well as our state-owned enterprises have played a crucial role in the competitiveness and attractiveness of our economy. It is unfortunate that in Mauritius, the signals sent by our institutions, such as ICTA, Bank of Mauritius, Landscope, STC and others, to the local and international business world are completely negative, thus contributing to plague or even rot the business climate. Mauritius is no longer a competitive and attractive place for investors because of the scandals affecting our institutions and destroying their effectiveness.

Further, it should be noted that in many institutions the gap between the mission they have set for themselves, and their performance is staggering. Let us not forget that the Audit severely criticized the Economic Development Board (EDB), the supposed flagship of our public institutions, for its catastrophic promotion of Mauritius as a regional platform for business. As for Landscope, a potpourri investing in skyscrapers and data technology parks without any study having been conducted.

This government got a severe but well-deserved slap on the face from the IMF. The IMF in no uncertain terms mentioned that we need to restore the central bank’s credibility (what a diplomatic way to convey the message that our Bank of Mauritius has no credibility!). Such a strategic institution like the Bank of Mauritius was given all the latitude to play with our monetary policy. In which country have we seen that Rs 28 billion are treated as an advance against unknown future profits and distributed outright to Government? I am sure that the Mentor must have grieved over such disrespect for a crucial institution.

What is the plan of the government to stop this “descente aux enfers” of our public institutions? Does this government understand that any country is as strong as its institutions? The pillar of any democratic state is trust in efficient, transparent, and accountable public institutions. Trust in our institutions can only be built through efficiency, competency, and accountability to reassure the population that these institutions are delivering value for money. During his last days, the Mentor must have reflected how low Mauritius has fallen in terms of credibility in the eyes of the IMF, while those institutions which he has contributed to build over time had reached a stage of decline and advanced decay.

In its report the IMF specifically mentioned I QUOTE “The government should prepare plans for fiscal consolidation to stabilize debt in the medium term once Mauritius has firmly emerged from the pandemic to preserve fiscal sustainability and build buffers given the substantial increase in public debt level, which is likely to exceed 90 percent of GDP in the wake of the crisis.” UNQUOTE.

Where is this plan for fiscal consolidation in this budget, where is this plan to build buffers in case the country faces a calamity? Instead, the Bank of Mauritius is transferring Rs 28 billion to Government as advance against future profits. Is this the way to prepare the country to face future shocks and calamities? I am sure that the Mentor would have seen that instead of preparing the future, this government is compromising the future of our children and grandchildren. This is PURE intergenerational injustice at its highest. Where is the integrity and honesty of this government as they do not seem to realize that their irresponsible decisions stand in conflict with the rights of future generations? How can the Bank of Mauritius transfer future profits, in such a highly unforeseeable environment, profits to be for sure again wasted by this present government?

Another important policy recommendation from the IMF was I QUOTE “The mission recommended “prioritizing programs that are consistent with medium-term development needs and broader social and environmental goals, such as digitalization, inclusion, and climate change mitigation during the recovery phase.” UNQUOTE. In plain English this quote from the IMF report means that government does not know what the priorities of Mauritius are and that they are instead wasting public funds on white elephants. IMF recommends that the government should focus on digitalization, inclusion, and climate change mitigation.

Where are the adequate policy-responses in this budget which looks more like a shopping lists of vague ideas? Will it trigger the digitalization of government services and most importantly a robust programme to endow Mauritius with the necessary resources to face climate change?

While listening to the Budget Speech, I did not feel that the government has understood that Mauritius can no longer afford non-priority infrastructure projects like Safe City, renovation of Landscope Waterfront shops, Côte d’Or Multi-Sports complex, Data Technology Park, extension of Metro Express which will never be profitable and a 50-storey micro-skyscraper, especially in a situation of excess of commercial and office space.

Another IMF policy recommendation is I QUOTE “The mission recommended “prioritizing programs that are consistent with medium-term development needs and broader social and environmental goals “. How then is government going to prioritize its programs and projects? Here again I am very disappointed that there is no appropriate budget measure to address this problem of projects-prioritization recommended by the IMF. I would have expected that the Minister of Finance as an economist would have been guided by the axiom that the number of projects is unlimited, but funds are limited. As the IMF has hinted in its report, it is imperative that the Government enacts a bill to ensure that only socially and economically beneficial projects are selected by a robust, objective, and independent project appraisal process comprising clearly delineated planning, evaluation, selection, and monitoring phases under public scrutiny. Billions of rupees have been wasted in useless projects. A law that makes it compulsory to carry out a socio-economic assessment is necessary taking into consideration the high level of Mauritius national debt.

The light rail will not be the only white elephant of this government. There are many others: Unsafe City, Complexe Multi-sports de Côte d’Or, Landscope Waterfront, Smart building of Rose Belle, Data Technology Park, 50-storey building, ICTA project, the digital currency of the Bank of Mauritius, etc. For all those white elephants that cost billions, there has been NO economic, technical, and financial STUDY. Not even a back-of-the-envelope study!

A new road, a hospital, a multi-sport complex, tramway, or a useless project such as Unsafe City that costs billions of Mauritian taxpayers’ money cannot be the result of a political hobby or the figments in the childish dream of an ill-informed Prime Minister.

In the wake of the 2021-2022 Budget Speech, it is now a national priority to use taxpayers’ money wisely and to pass a law which makes it compulsory to carry out socio-economic assessments for all public investments and public establishments such as Landscope, CEB and others and by imposing independent second opinions for projects exceeding Rs 100 million. Such a law exists in all democracies and in nearly all African countries!

Instead of making the assumption that Safe City will improve the elucidation of criminal fellonies and the work of the police services and well before wasting public funds in the Safe City project at such an astronomical cost of Rs19 billion and for the project to have a strong political and social legitimacy, a technical feasibility and cost-benefit study would have objectively assessed the preventive and repressive capacities of this system as well as evaluate other more affordable alternatives.

This government took the decision to embark on a Rs 19 billion project by blindly assuming the effectiveness of the equipment and that there were no other alternatives such as increased police personnel and additional patrols to combat crime. Yet, the evaluative work of British, Australian, and Swiss criminologists converges in their conclusions: the effectiveness of video surveillance and its impact on the decrease in crime is not only negligible but very variable depending on the type of crime, the places monitored, the quality of the equipment and the training of the operators responsible for viewing the images. For example, only 3% of robberies in the streets of London were solved using CCTV footage, even though the British have more cameras than any other country in Europe.

All Mauritians are appalled by the fact that NO analysis had been made of the obvious discrepancy between the human resources available by the police force and the increase in the quantity of images that will have to be responsibly handled with the establishment of the Safe City system.

Today the general feeling is that the installation of the Safe City system has had no effect on Mauritians’ sense of security. On the contrary, Mauritians know very well that behind the 4,000 surveillance cameras, there is NO police officer watching over what is happening to be ready to trigger an intervention at the slightest criminal or delinquent manifestation. When crimes or delinquent acts are committed every day in front of Safe City’s 4,000 cameras, without any intervention being deployed at the time of the crime, on the contrary, it creates a feeling of insecurity and anxiety.

It is worth quoting what the AUDIT REPORT 2019-2020 had to say on the Safe City project:

“Lapses were also noted in the normal procurement proceedings of Ministries and Departments. For instance, the contract for the “Safe City Project” for some Rs 16 billion was awarded directly to a private company on an operating lease model for a 20-year period. No evidence was produced to National Authorising Officer to the effect that an assessment was made to ascertain the fairness of the lease payments made by the Police Service under the contract, and thus that the procurement was undertaken in the most economical manner.” And we are speaking of a contract of total value of Rs 18 billion.

Never in the history of government administration have we seen a report from the Director of Audit for fiscal year 2019-2020 so negative with a series of shortcomings and dilapidations of public funds from this present government. The 498-page report of the National Audit has drawn attention to the considerable waste of public funds in diverse ministries. Huge amounts have gone to waste; system of procedures have been bypassed, non-compliance with legislation and many losses are due to dereliction of duty and absence of adequate follow up on projects. Major deficiencies have also been noted in contract management and asset management. These shortcomings had a significant impact on public finances, resources and service delivery and revealed weaknesses in financial governance.

This report has confirmed to a large measure the veracity of the various allegations that have been levelled in relation to the emergency procurement of drugs and equipment in the wake of the first lockdown in March 2020. For example, lapses were noted in the procurement of medical equipment and supplies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These lapses included absence of proper documentation at the different stages of the emergency procurement process, non-compliance with the legal requirements and inadequate assessment of fairness and reasonableness of prices quoted by suppliers. Moreover, medical disposables to the tune of Rs 850 million were purchased from private companies which had no previous dealings with the MOHW in such goods. The average prices paid for some medical disposables were up to 67 times higher than the last price paid for.

However, we should not be surprised that all our institutions have either come to a standstill or are taking the wrong decisions which will compromise the sustainable development of Mauritius for the next generations as the government has catapulted at the head of these institutions appointees more occupied with doing government’s dirty work than achieving the objectives set in their statutory mandate. These institutions now only welcome in their midst them people with no relevant skills or experience. Those who have an independent mind cannot stay long, thereby further accelerating the decay of these institutions.

The result is that within our institutions everyone has given up. Contaminated by the deleterious climate, a certain form of fatalism prevails in our public institutions, ministries, and public enterprises. There are those who get their hands dirty to keep their jobs, others do it to get rich with impunity and still others, helpless in the face of the inevitable, watch their institutions flounder without flinching.

For instance, what has the EDB, which is supposed to be the think tank of the country, produced recently in terms of development strategies to embrace new economic sectors like Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Cloud computing? If per chance they have produced anything, was it done in a collaborative manner involving those who either are operating in such technical sectors, specialists or is it another half-baked ICTA consultation paper produced by some amateurs?

Coming back to Landscope, is this organisation not just replicating the mistakes of the Cybercity by going forward with the Data Technology Park without any demand study or at least a SWOT analysis that will allow us to understand why the provision of offices at Côte d’Or will foster the development of the Data Technology sector. In fact, this is the great danger of not having undertaken an objective appraisal of whether a government initiative is a flop or a success. Ebene Cybercity never created the 15,000 jobs planned in the ICT sector and now we want to replicate the failure of Ebene in Côte d’Or.

Without competent people at the helm of our institutions with a robust and clear strategy, Mauritius will not be able to face the numerous challenges ahead and embrace a sustainable development. We will continue to fool ourselves with an illusion of an economic miracle that never happened since a large part of what has been fallaciously described as an “Economic Miracle” is logically reasoned as the advantageous congruity of economic factors. It is the sheer consequence of the delocalisation strategy of firms which at that time was purely based on cost. Competitiveness is no longer cost-driven or even solely dependent on the ease of doing business. Mauritius will not be able to attract investors in the Data Technology space just by providing office space and some fiscal incentives. A whole innovation ecosystem needs to be put in place for this to happen. I have not seen anywhere in the Budget Speech mention of this innovation ecosystem and the human resources plan that has to be in place for the twelve sectors of the Data Technology Park to flourish.

The Prime Minister makes me think of a young boy whose father won the lottery. The proceeds of this lottery have unfortunately been squandered by him. Now, he thoughtlessly presumes that by simply jogging to the next “tabagie” and buying another lottery ticket he will, like his lucky father, win the lottery again. I only hope that this time the Prime Minister will not blame luck. Luck has evaporated for this government as it has relied too much thereon since 2014.

I now come to the question of cost over-runs of projects. This is a government who can start with a pilot project intelligently estimated at Rs 5 million and end up with a total spending of Rs 19 billion rupees. “L’appétit vient en mangeant », so they say. May I add « La gourmandise et la cupidité viennent en mâchant ? ». I have heard of cost overrun of 100% but never a cost overrun of 99,000 %! In the case of the grossly unutilised Côte d’Or Multi-purpose sports complex, the project started with a project value of Rs1.2 billion to end with a total cost of Rs 5.5 billion which represents a cost overrun of 360% which is more acceptable than the 99,000 per cent cost overrun of the safe city project but the maintenance cost are estimated at Rs 250 million per year. The fate of this prestige project will most probable be the same as the Anjalay stadium which is grossly underutilised and has been left to rot.

I now come to another risk facing Mauritius which has unfortunately not been addressed in the Budget Speech which I wish to reiterate is a heterogeneous list of half-baked ideas, a clear testimony to the Minister’s obtuse thinking and hollowness.

All Mauritians have been until 2014 extremely proud of their country. Mauritius was also well respected in the international arena. But lately, Mauritius had to face a series of reputational risks, blacklisting, listing as an autocratic country and downgrades.

This government came to power in 2014 promising to eradicate corruption. But surveys carried out in 2020 by independent bodies reveal that corruption, instead of decreasing, increased during Pravind Jugnauth’s term of office. Mauritius lost 5 places in the Corruption Perception Index, ranked 52nd (47th in 2014) far behind Seychelles and Botswana.

After having seen its rating downgraded by Moody’s from Baa1 to Baa2 and after being placed on GAFI’s grey list, then on the European Union’s blacklist, and after having dropped sharply by 25 ranks in the ranking of the Global Financial Centers Index, after the IMF’s slap and advice to restore the Bank of Mauritius credibility and with the awkward moves of ICTA which could result in Mauritius being on the blacklist of Google, Mozilla and Apple. The latest downgrade has emanated from the MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION 2020 African Governance Index Report. The 2020 Ibrahim African Governance (IIAG) states that, I QUOTE – “although Mauritius still ranks at the top of its list – measures of human rights have deteriorated over the reporting period. Mauritius is moving in the opposite direction with Mauritius’s Overall Governance score declining at an increasing rate, driven by weakened social protection and deteriorated human rights.” The Minister of Finance has not included any policy measures on how he will address Mauritius’s poor performance in terms of the above various rankings and gradings.

Yet international rankings are a critical tool used by international actors and potential investors to assess a country’s governance. The chronic bad practices and malpractices of the Government of Mauritius and its performance will continue to be under international media scrutiny and will be judged by several high-profile indices, including assessments of its levels of corruption, quality of its democracy, creditworthiness, media freedom, and business environment.

I am amazed by the absence of reaction and clear strategy of our government with regard to how Mauritius will improve its ranking in these various indices and improve its international public image. I am in no way encouraging Government to embark in such useless image building and branding exercise as the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority did by signing a Rs 400-million three-year partnership deal with Liverpool Football Club (LFC) as the club’s official tourism and economic development partner. I am speaking of a meticulous work to assess the reasons why Mauritius has fallen in its ranking of the various indices and an action plan with a timeline for Mauritius to improve its ranking. As an example, it is important for all Mauritians to understand Mauritius downfall in the Global Financial Centers Index as the country took a nose dive from 63rd to 89th place in the world – the worst performance in Africa! Up to now no one has explained such an unprecedented downfall.

Let me conclude by saying that whether in terms of fiscal irresponsibility, the unsustainable explosion of public debt, the squandering of Bank of Mauritius funds, the waste of billions of rupees on useless projects, the mismanagement of public enterprises, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth will go down in the country’s history as “patient zero” of bad governance.

Gérard Sanspeur

NOT A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT