What Happens When Justin Gets A Gift

If its value exceeds $200 he has to disclose it publicly. Within 30 days. This doesn't apply if the gift is from friend or family. But it covers any advantage they may have obtained. For instance he received a few bottles of whisky on last January 6 from the Ambassador of Guinea. Three days later cufflinks for his birthday from the Afghan Ambassador. And butterfly glasswork from Norway's crown prince last year. All the disclosures are available online.

The scrutiny doesn't stop there. The designer clothes the Canadian First Lady receives as gifts are also inventoried. Like the tuxedo suit by Pink Tartan. And the holiday at Aga Khan's home in the Bahamas. Journalists have also found that the Trudeau Foundation received about 10 times more money once Justin took over the leadership of the Liberal Party -- most of the donations came from overseas. And have mapped conference sponsorships against corresponding lobbying issues to highlight any potential conflicts of interest. Air Canada for example has lobbied 102 times over a two-year period.

Canada ranked 9th in the 2016 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. Singapore was at spot no 7. Mauritius at 50.

Je Suis Perplexe

I just asked Google for some help about Transparency Mauritius and it provided me with some links including the website for the parent organisation as well as one for the local chapter. So I browsed a little bit and landed on the press release page for the Mauritian office.

I was quite surprised to note that the latest press release dates back to July 2004 or almost 6 years ago. Maybe there's another website? Strange though because the website address for the Mauritian chapter posted on the parent's website points back to the same page.

De quoi rendre perplexe.

Here's One Place Transparency Mauritius Can Help

It should concentrate on finding out how the hell the STC lost Rs3 billion on hedging. Because more than a year has gone by and we're still in the dark as to how so much of our money was lost. Besides the STC doesn't have to undertake any hedging because it passes whatever it paid for petroleum products to us, along with a margin, through the Automatic Pricing Mechanism.

And I don't remember hearing de Navacelle when some people were saying that the public ought not to know who was getting money from the very controversial stimulus package Mauritius didn't need. Shouldn't he have been the first one to speak out and ask for a little bit of... transparency?