Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Mansoor Doubles Foreign Debt in 3 Short Years



By guzzling an extra Rs9 billion. This makes Mauritius more vulnerable and is inconsistent with slogans like 'reforms have saved the economy'. And that's definitely something Africa doesn't want to copy.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Addendum: VRS (Voluntary Rupee Slide) in the Suicidal Package

Anonymous said...

Here is my 2 cents:

Anyone who has Canal+ in Mauritius must have seen how well and alive is the current debates on French Tv regarding the economy and all the rest(not to mention the downfall of Sarkozy). Why the hell dont we have such debates in Mauritius - whats wrong with us here in this insular country....ohey cant we have a private TV station whcih could houst these debates with the help of economists pointing out this easy to see realities???

Yesterday I saw Ramgoolam grining at the opposition memebers when teh later tried asking him question regarding the audit report....he seems not to care at all.

Ramgoolam should eb sent on a visit to norway instead of the uk - there he will see how the govt minsters save money in many ways:

limit on how much they spend eating lunch whislt on a visit outside and within the country

how ministers use public transport to and from work....how they dont always have security staff around them.....how they share official cars etc....

But hang on....I think we are doomed anyway. Ile Maurice pourri

Kozémotandé said...

1.The problems Greece and other European countries are facing find their origin in massive accumulated public debt. It seems that past blunders do not serve as lessons in the field of economics for those who are entrusted with public administration duties.
2. Norway is a very rich country and yet it will not tolerate the slightest misuse of public funds. Singapore follows the same principles. Mauritius wants to be like Singapore and Norway but without abiding to stringent governance principles.
3. Read this report om Mauritius and global finance: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/sharife200710.html

Anonymous said...

I have a dream last night -

I was watching BBC World and HardTalk was on. Stephen was interviewing someone who looked quite familiar- I blinked my eyes twice and coulndt beleive it was Navin Ramgoolam providing cogent well thought out answers to tough questions and followup questions by the strong BBC man. I was so impressed that I said to myself - oh what an articulate PM we have there who when given the opportunity explains all the rationale behind all he does....wow

That was only a dream!

akagugo said...

@ Anonymous of July 22, 2010 12:39 PM:
To ti-rev faire moi pense enn ti-séga: dé-trois fois mo révé mo lor mo souval, lé-temps mo lévé...

@ Anonymous of July 21, 2010 5:43 PM:
"Why the hell dont we have such debates in Mauritius - whats wrong with us here in this insular country"
Abé, cher/chère compatriote, couma mo'nn déza dirr, nou, Dodolandais nou trop trop enfantin pou gagne sa kalité débat-la: nou ziss bon pou guette Bouba, Kabhi Saass Bhi Bahu Thi, Marimar, etc, etc, tousaki bon pou bann tchi-zonfon ek pas faire nou peur/traumatisé par violence extreme ki capave gagner dans bann débat télévisé... Enn ti l'exemple: Dans bann l'année '80, rappel enn épisode "V" (samem série avec bann lézard-humanoïde ki déguise en humain-la) kott enn madame accoucher ti diffusé par MBC avec enn visa X. Mem épisode ti zoué RFO sans aukenn restriction. Plus recemment, enn épisode Envoyé Spécial "Spécial Japon" zamé pann diffusé par MBC parski li ti pe traite crument la culture japonaise (mangas ultra-violents, enjo-kosai, cosplay etc...). Donc, pour résumer, nous bann autorité compétente cwar ki nou sensibilité tellement sensible ki zott inn juger ki li préférable pas ki nous conne nargnié. Pour moi, chance ki morpa ti pé faire la-tett li-pié pou faire nou gagne RFO lakaz (des chiffres et des lettres, Casimir, Ken le Survivant, Hawaï police d'état, Cosmocats, La marche du Siècle, etc)

Anonymous said...

Does anybody know when is Mansoor leaving?

Anonymous said...

Kee Chong fine perdi la tete: li pe dire nomme AM directeur de l'Audit pout 5 ans.
Peut-etre pas. Li envi ki AM reste dans les parages fan cake encore 5 ans coumsa li gagne la chance vine ministre prochaine fois.

Anonymous said...

Le Defi raconte que ce cher AM a engage un de ses anciens collegues de la BM comme conseiller technique avec allocation logement de 40 milles balles. On peut savoir son salaire?
Regardez aussi de qui AM a emprunte des milliards de roupies depuis son affectation comme FS et cela ne va pas vous faire rire. Alors la, pas du tout.
Tout cela merite une belle commission d'enquete.

Anonymous said...

Or it could be an initiative from RS who is now close to PRB to try to save his friend from the axe. He will apparently be joining the MMM and be presented as MOF in 2015. So he wants his friend to be around to continue the 'great job' they have done between 2006 and 2010. KC is being used to plant the idea in the media.
Unlikely to happen because PJ does not want the ears of RS to be around in his ministry.

Anonymous said...

Ali mansoor earns his salary, he couldnt care less.

The ways this is going someday we will be shocked to find ourselves in a the deep end.Ramgoolam has no leadership capabilities - he is the wrost PM to have in a time of crisis, he couldnt even handle the kaya upsurge so what of economic emergencies. Lets not forget that Mauriitus didnt go through a real crisis like the US have had, we were not affected.

Vikramg said...

The facts do indicate that the debt has almost tripled, however the big question to ask is:

Where has all the money gone to?

Obviously, some down the drain as pointed out by the Audit report.

Interestingly, no one dares to make any noise or ask for accountability.

Jai Ho ;-)

akagugo said...

Yet, FDI still pouring in

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Eski nu bizin dir yet ou byen despite?

chek breakdown la isi.

Vikramg said...

Well only 2 sectors are bringing in a lot of FDI: construction and IRS.

So, selling off our land to foreigners is the only way that we can generate FDI!

akagugo said...

Wai, subtile nuance, très cher...
Foreign Debt has been steeply rising over the last years, yet Foreign Direct Investment has not stalled, on the contrary, it's still rising and at a faster rate than last year (so far). Saki bien interessant c'est ki construction ek IRS bann poids lourds (30.5% of the Jan-May'10 total) la-dans (:-)rappel quand Paulo ti pé dire "quand la construction va, tout va"). Donc, pena enn vrai correlation entre ça dé paramett-la...
Zour nou bann "autorités compétentes" pou réaliser ki la-terre c'est enn finite non-renewable resource, nou tou pou vinn couma bann SDF couma dans Dubreuil. A moins ki nou commence comprend ki pas capave laisse ça kantité la-terre la faire ziss disik...

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Exacteman! Pran u dernyer komenter azut ek sa u byen sa ek sa pu u kompran galimatia ekonomik kinn derule. Nu dir mersi kisana?

Anonymous said...

WB saying in this report that:

i. Mauritius borrowed USD 210 million from it between 2006 and 2010 although it could have obtained these resources from elsewhere.
ii. reforms made us more resilient through the financial crisis
iii. important reforms to improve public sector efficiency were adopted
iv. the WB provided analytical and advisory services to fine tune policies

My two cents are:

i. why then did Mauritius borrow from the WB in USD with Sithanen asking for rupee depreciation at the same time?
ii. as you people have clearly explained for a long time now Mauritius could not have been affected the same way other countries did because our banks did not have these toxic assets on their balance sheet and there are so many countries that did better than us for several years in a row.
iii. this seems to come from people who have not read the damning audit report.
iv. how much did we pay for this and why did we pay for this? who decided that we needed those?

The WB seemed to have had at least one of their agents taking all these decision that are in their interest and in their interest only since 2006.

I wonder if an update of that report will highlight that one of these agents was dumped and almost cost the outgoing PM his reelection.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Taking so much foreign debt is simply incoherent with what Sithanen told us he was working hard to avoid because that pushes you closer into the jaws of the loan-sharks.

It seems that Mauritius paid advisory services to take lots of debt from the same institution and to make us a lot more vulnerable. Here's yet another proof that the toxic duet screwed up big time.

akagugo said...

Mr Gérald Cheong Hak Ming is already forewarning us that a potential saturation of the IRS/RES market may fall back on its face...

Anonymous said...

Nek ecoute sa zozo la un peu.

Vikramg said...

@Anonymous:
So the government is going to try to find ways to cut cost to save more money.

Well, it seems that the Audit report is only read by those not in power!

akagugo said...

Another appreciation of the influx of FDI

Anonymous said...

This is what JCDL wrote on 14.02.2010 about Ali Mansoor: "Et pis encore, il ne sait même pas que les élections arrivent..."

Hmmm. So he is not aware that governments are elected for 5 years??? Is he aware that there were general elections in May??? Does he remember that he took all these billions of rupees of loans from an institution he knows very well (let me put the name in case he does not remember this either: The World Bank)???

What about that Michael Jackson died last year??? That the guy who appointed him as FS has been gone for 4 months now???

Anonymous said...

Extrait d'une entrevue d'Ali Mansoor.

L’on vous reproche de vous laisser dicter par une équipe du FMI et de la Banque mondiale.

Pas du tout. Demandez à mes collègues et ils vous diront que parfois je suis trop dur avec la Banque mondiale ! Je leur dis souvent que nous n’avons pas besoin de leur argent - heureusement ! - mais de leur expertise. Je leur dis que nous avons besoin de comprendre ce qui a marché et ce qui n’a pas marché ailleurs pour pouvoir faire des choix éclairés et ensuite adapter ces politiques à nos réalités.

Decryptage

"Parfois trop dur avec la Banque Mondiale": On peut avoir les noms de ces collègues svp?

"Je leur dis souvent que nous n’avons pas besoin de leur argent - heureusement ! - mais de leur expertise.": C'est ça... apres avoir emprunte 9 milliards de roupies... Leur expertise? La Banque Mondiale a une quelquonque expertise? Première nouvelle!

"Je leur dis que nous avons besoin de comprendre ce qui a marché et ce qui n’a pas marché ailleurs pour pouvoir faire des choix éclairés et ensuite adapter ces politiques à nos réalités.": Vraiment? Et toi ton expertise elle est dans quoi exactement? Tu nous coutes combien encore? Ça marchait bien avant ton arrivée...

Anonymous said...

It seems then that there was a 'Before Mansoor' and an 'After Mansoor'...

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

External debt servicing for FY2017/18 is projected at Rs3.9bn.