Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Labour MP Hits Where it Hurts: A Comment

In his reply to a statement made by MP Deerpalsing, Ali Mansoor said that our water problem is mostly a systemic problem of management and implementation instead of one of lack of funds. And that this problem dates back well before 2005 -- that is before his university buddy got him his current job.

I am having some trouble with this reply given that:

1. when our Midlands Dam came into operation in 2003 it added 25 million m3 to the water our reservoirs stored or another 40%. So it's not like nothing got implemented in our country before his arrival. Nope, the opening of the Midlands Dam was a watershed event in the history of that sector. But given that our economy has now grown by a third since then we were bound to crash into a wall if we didn't throw enough money in time to increase water storage -- like going for Phase 2 of the Midlands Dam (17 million m3). Which is what is happening now.

2. we were told back in 2005 that the stage was being set for robust growth so that plans should have been made to bring our water supply to a level commensurate with this higher intended growth path. This of course would have meant going beyond Phase 2 of the Midlands Dam. That is even more money should have been earmarked for this sector. Doable if you're not a bean-counter.

3. our country apparently experienced an early harvest (2007) followed by no less than a bumper crop (2008) and that almost immediately after the reforms started. Now, if you don't use a bumper crop to solve problems that can stall your economy and reduce national indebtedness, I wonder why you even want to have bumper crops.

By the way, if free laptops have not been distributed yet is it because Ministers are not in shape enough to hand them on TV? What about the HR guidelines? Implementation shortfall here too?

Hmm...

15 comments:

akagugo said...

Here's Nita's interview, and relevant excerpts from Dr Zoom.

My question is: where is all the friggin' money of the early harvest / bumper crop gone? Investment in capital goods is what they should have been doing since years ago, not the crisis management and the price hikes we're being force-fed with now!

Kranti said...

La oussi Ali Mansoor pas aller! Qui qualite bon ena dans sa position FS la? Gagne maltraiter par syndicalistes, polticiens (deputes et ministres), NGOs, consommateurs, bannes pauvres, etc, la oussi li pas aller meme! Ene bez sa vous autres, comme dirai Mme Bappoo. Attention, ene couma li meme fine prend controle finances Banque mondiale qui pou rann li sa misere li pe faire a tous mauriciens!

Anonymous said...

send the PM this blog entry on good quality paper, the one royal mint uses

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

@akagugo: exateman! kot pitaye la?!?

@kranti: pul santekler al tase mo kwar la!

@anonymous: kot gayn sa bon papyer la? MWT?

Anonymous said...

Ti bisin mette biro F.S. dan mare-aux-vacoas. Kit foi ler la li ti va compren.

akagugo said...

SamediPlus published in its edition of 11 Jun'11 a 3-page charge against our very dear MAM, including his condescending reply to ND's interview at page 8.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Saw that. Our MAM also replied to a request for some basic information in the public interest that "he can verify info but not do research".

Don't you just love the guy?
;-)

lakeminou said...

Admettons une minute que ce probleme date d'avant son arrivee. Ben, une fois arrive, est-ce qu'il ne procede pas a un etat des lieux pour dresser une liste de priorites????

On voit bien que ce monsieur ne comprend rien de rien. Meme cinq ans apres...

akagugo said...

@ lakeminou:

"une fois arrive, est-ce qu'il ne procede pas a un etat des lieux pour dresser une liste de priorites?"

No, because "he can verify info but not do research"... :-)

Ek pa bliƩ, li ziss enn conseiller. Alors, li ziss capav donne conseil. Saki li ferr dans la pratik...

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

@akagugo:

Ler pu fer rekritman prosin FS (esperon semen prosen) fode pa bliye avoye enn ti kapsil lor planet mars avek deskripsyon job la: kisanla ki dir enn ti bolom ver ek zantenn pa kav fer travaye la pli byen?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Kumsa finn tarde pu rekrit enn nuvo FS. Bwat sa matlo. Finn shut out bann ti bolom ver ankor enn fwa?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Sinon, pa enn mari kontradiksyon sa: isi li dir pa mank kas me la li dir manke.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Is a little bit of common sense back?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

The most dangerous dam in the world contains over 100 times the volume of all of our reservoirs put together. Bagatelle dam excluded.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Just looking at this post. How silly does that Mansoor comment appear now when we know that by 2010 the GDP shortfall because of two bean-counter's flat tax had already ballooned to 116 billion rupees?