Mauritian Taxpayers Handed Rs5 Billion Bill

Because Government lost the arbitration against Betamax Ltd. That's going to be hard to pay given that the Sithanen flat tax has broken our economy and there's tens of billions of rupees missing in the Government till. It's going to be even harder for voters to digest. How did we end up in yet another mess? Has there been any negligence and recklessness along the way?

At the very least salaries of Ministers -- and that of the Leader of the opposition given that he was the DPM until recently -- should immediately be cut by 80% to save around Rs150 million over the next twenty-four months. Government MPs should also take a big pay cut. Per diem rates should be revised downwards and overseas travel reduced to a strict minimum. Official cars should be traded for more reasonable alternatives. Like bus passes and bikes. And running shoes.

We also need to have more tools to deal with these kinds of situations. Like legislation that could better align the interests of politicians with ours. Including mechanisms for seizing a significant portion of the assets of members of cabinet after they play bull with our china shop. This is all the more necessary given that there are other cases pending including the USD1bn of damages lodged by Rawat.

BoM Releases nTan Report, This Time

Here it is. I hope the first one will be released too. In the name of transparency.

From Paris, Rawat Gives His Side of the Story

The Rawats Hit Back

With Laina Rawat asking the commercial division of the Supreme Court to restrain the two receivers of Bramer Bank, Andre Bonieux and Mushtaq Oosman, in a number of ways. She claims the Bank of Mauritius acted in a way which is contrary to its own statutory obligations, natural justice and basic management principles. Ms. Rawat also believes that the receivers have a conflict of interest and are therefore not in a position to carry out their duties as per the law.

On his side Basant Roi has called the revocation of Bramer Bank's license on April 2 our Lehman moment. He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.

BoM Revokes Licence of Bramer Bank

Cites seriously impaired capital, conducting business which is detrimental to depositors and systemic risk and inability to show it can fix its liquidity and capital problems. The Prime Minster also held a press conference about an hour ago where he announced that his government has uncovered a huge Ponzi scheme in excess of Rs25 billions and has consequently acted quickly as Bramer Bank and BAI Co. were going to crash. Two conservators of BAI Co have been appointed while one newsgroup mentions that arrests on departure and on arrival have been lodged.