And we should all thank Ivan Collendavelloo for it. See, since he announced that he wants to sell CWA for some bogus reasons people have spoken out. Starting with Sangeet Fowdar -- an MP from his own party -- who threatened to resign kare kare and provoke a by-election. Folks also wrote against the proposed strategic partnership business and now several union bosses have jumped on the bandwagon.
They are not only finding this idea totally stupid but are also bringing back the partial privatisation of Mauritius Telecom on the front burner. They really want to know how this has benefited Mauritius. That's a valid point because there was no good reason to go with this 2000 deal in the first place. Mauritius Telecom could have instead established a multi-billion rupee bond program back then. Which incidentally would have made our financial markets more sophisticated. And given interesting work to the growing number of our finance professionals.
We got Rs7 billion from France Telecom for 40% of MT but we need to see how much FT has been obtaining since the deal went through. In terms of dividends and other cash-flows sent abroad. And assess the effect on our balance of payments for the past decade and a half. It would also be interesting to find out about all the parties involved in this transaction and how much they got out of the deal. For good governance sake.
They are not only finding this idea totally stupid but are also bringing back the partial privatisation of Mauritius Telecom on the front burner. They really want to know how this has benefited Mauritius. That's a valid point because there was no good reason to go with this 2000 deal in the first place. Mauritius Telecom could have instead established a multi-billion rupee bond program back then. Which incidentally would have made our financial markets more sophisticated. And given interesting work to the growing number of our finance professionals.
We got Rs7 billion from France Telecom for 40% of MT but we need to see how much FT has been obtaining since the deal went through. In terms of dividends and other cash-flows sent abroad. And assess the effect on our balance of payments for the past decade and a half. It would also be interesting to find out about all the parties involved in this transaction and how much they got out of the deal. For good governance sake.
Congratulations to the British people who have spoken their mind. Mauritians should now be given the same opportunity to speak theirs about the proposed sale of the CWA and the CHCL in a referendum. We can do it!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat other parties are you talking about???
ReplyDeleteIt was a deal between Mauriitus Telecom and France Telecom.
This article from No to Privatisation Platform contains interesting information including about the 153-year old water rights legislation. I think akagugo alluded to it somewhere here years back.
ReplyDeleteAll these points feeding Mr Jeeroobarkhan's arguments (as from 45:35) crush mercilessly those of Dr Ismael. But in the light of the way of running things currently, we can only fear the worst...
ReplyDeleteIvan should resign as he is out of his depth here. He resigned for a lot less in 1989.
ReplyDeleteFirst CWA, then CEB, then WMA. Just observe who he's going to nominate at the latter parastatal to see where we're heading...
ReplyDeleteRajahbalee was the Chairman of MT at the time of the sale to FT. Bloomberg has him as the lead negotiator in this deal. I have two questions:
ReplyDelete1. how much extra remuneration if any did he pocket for being the lead negotiator?
2. who were the other negotiators and how much were they paid?
Well, the audited accounts published don't go beyond 2005, whose PDF is corrupted. The 2006 report at a timeline of page 21 states:
ReplyDelete"2000: OTS shares in Mauritius Telecom are transferred to Government of Mauritius Strategic equity partnership with France Telecom signed in November", and further, at page 32:
"In 2006, the Mauritius Telecom Finance Department joined forces with its strategic partner France Telecom, for the common sourcing of equipment, materials and
services."
So, if the deal was done in 2000, and 'benefits' start to become apparent five years later, can we say it was a 'mari deal'?
We could probably ask for the 2000 audit report, but that, as all other parastatals, violating Section 1(b) of Regulation 9 of the Statutory Bodies (Accounts and Audit) Act 2012, abetted by the Minister's indifference in discharging their duties under Section 2 of the same Regulation 9. And there are many many offenders...
Someone is trying to change the CWA (Central Water Authority) into the Chiwawa Water Asset (CWA).
ReplyDeleteSir,
ReplyDeleteMethinks the Plan Tiwawa is like this:
i. advertise for a strategic partner in international newspapers
ii. shortlist a few partners (we know who our tchi-tchi-wah-wah has in mind)
iii. assemble a panel of negotiators (most likely handpicked from the p'tit-wa-waouh chambers or those who have worked there at one time or another). never revealing the astronomical fees paid to the negotiators. just like with MT/FT scandal.
iv. announce that a deal has been reached. and ask us to congratulate the chihuahua team for the mari-deal
v. foreign company gets stake in CWA and/or abusively profitable management contract
vi. foreign company is very helpful at election time
C'est la tradition du MMM
ReplyDelete1982, vente de deux hotels
2000, vente de MT
2017, tentative de vente de CWA