Gérard Sanspeur resigned as Second Deputy Governor following advice of PM tendered during a conversation on Friday. He then held a press conference to explain that things are pretty bad at the Bank of Mauritius because Sithanen believes that that institution is his kingdom, actively covering stuff up and taking decisions where he has serious and undeclared conflicts of interest. Sanspeur also declared that Tevin Sithanen, the Governor's son, meddles profusely into the internal affairs of the BoM and wants to have a say in hiring, firing, attribution of banking licences and tenders. During the presser the ex-SDG has dangled six pages of what he says are damning one-way WhatsApp messages from Sithanen Jr.
Sanspeur will be making statements to the police soon and has promised more revelations. He also mentioned that he has a copy of a recording with respect to the Menlo Park saga that if made public would leave the Governor with no other alternative than to resign within a few hours.
Self-deluded 71-year-old Sithanen, probably the biggest political liability ever in the history of Mauritius, has been Finance Minister on two occasions under two different PMs. The first one ended in 1995 with the opposition winning all the seats in Mauritius and the second in 2010 by becoming the first and only outgoing FM to be denied a general election ticket. It's not the first time he's having trouble with the Bank of Maurtius Act, trade unionists and sources tell us that the controversial and increasingly contested idea of postponing the age eligibility for old age pension by five years was his.
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