The Call for Swift Justice and Financial Accountability: Restoring Integrity in Governance

Opinion

By Jan Arden

There is little room for doubt that the two key leaders of the Alliance for Change are committed to proceed with due legal process but that any perpetrators of fraud and scams would be brought to account. A testimony that times have changed despite the quasi-overload of unearthed scandals that each and every week seems to bring to the surface. These add to a lot of enquiries that were left to sleep for years! While necessary, this makes an angry popular opinion increasingly impatient that those who defrauded public funds to the tune of billions not be treated with gloves.

The demand for a faster-paced investigative action while respecting basic rights can be seen through different prisms: making sure dossiers are well-tied up or respecting due process and DPP advice and guidance to the CCID and the Mauritius Police Force in general. The question has been raised as to whether the latter, even with the collaboration of the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Crimes Commission, possesses the necessary resources and expertise to investigate more complex financial scams. Dozens of dossiers had already accumulated in filing cabinets, with new ones — suspected for some time — only now being uncovered. To restore public confidence, these concerns must be addressed without delay.

The population cannot be made to wait years for justice to be seen in action, particularly when suspects and known scammers, are strolling away on overseas holidays, enjoying their coffee and croissants in Dubai or brought to CCID offices at a respectful gubernatorial pace accompanied by their lawyers. The impression of a two-speed system, one for the common man and another for white-collar crime, has to be fought back. We trust the new CP will consider roping in therefore, on contract, if necessary, the financial trail specialists, the experienced auditors, the in-house legal acumen and even external agents to hit the ground running in 2025. Aside from the financial and banking scams at BoM and MIC, there are numerous other low-hanging fruits waiting to be picked — from the Angus Road and St Louis sagas, through the ghastly Covid-19 Emergency Procurement scandal, to outright alleged financial misdemeanours at some parastatals like the CWA.

A culture of arrogant impunity and oppressiveness has plagued our governance over the past ten years, and it has to be erased. Nobody else should ever think he or she is above the law. Ministers and their minions are on thin ice if they treat us as mentally retarded citizens. For those and a number of other reasons then, the population demands and expects non-expeditive but vigorous and exemplary justice.

Many even feel that all Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), Ministers and political appointees at key institutions should have an Objection to Departure (OTD) filed at the airport until preliminary enquiries clear them of any obvious misdeeds. But government should avoid any witch-hunt feeling of yesteryears when opponents were hounded, harassed and arrested for flimsy reasons. Then again, Ministers should be free to concentrate on sound planning and running of their departments. They should not be spending more time than necessary on scams and frauds. Once unearthed, some have argued that the monitoring and reporting of all such cases could be delegated or outsourced to a politically independent informal apex investigative mechanism including for instance, the CP, the FCC (pending its restructuration), the FSC and any other ad-hoc member. This approach could ensure effective collaboration, minimize turf wars, and facilitate the prioritization of cases, ensuring that none of significant importance are overlooked.

It is undeniable that the alleged financial crimes highlighted by the ongoing interrogations of BoM Governor Harvesh Seegoolam and the anticipated questioning of MIC CEO Jitendra Bissessur — along with others likely to follow — reveal serious irregularities in the opaque allocation of printed money during the pandemic, amounting to billions. These funds were reportedly funnelled to a motley collection of beneficiaries, including well-connected friends, cronies, and family members. This investigation serves as a litmus test for uncovering high-level corruption and kickback schemes that have, until now, operated with impunity. Some big players, we hear, did not even need the monies except for securing cheap interest rates to repay higher-rate commercial loans! The Ambre Hotel deal and the ghastly saga of Silver Bank are even more suspect. What controls were in place if any, what high-level protections were offered and who were the beneficiaries of defrauded public funds are all questions of immediate interest to the population.

Opacity, omerta and corruption go hand in glove and both “Missie Moustass” and our humble selves must be jointly commended for bringing a totally corrupt and oppressive regime to a brutal end with the hope that reforms be undertaken so such a derelict state of affairs never be allowed to happen again.Read More… Become a Subscriber

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 10 January 2025