Xavier-Luc Duval believed that this will be the next scandal the country will be talking about. He was holding a press meeting, Saturday 26 June, with the other leaders of the Alliance de l’Espoir. For him, the Vittol Bahrain affair is the “second big scandal that will be revealed in broad daylight after the Pack & Blister affair”. The leader of the opposition added that in both cases, the contract was awarded through emergency procedure. Xavier-Luc Duval recalled that Vittol Bahrain is a company that has been fined for corrupt practices.
The leader of the PMSD and of the Opposition also commented on the reported removal of Mauritius from the Financial Action Task Force’s gray list. He said that, in the first instance, the population should ask why the country was included on this list. “We never had such rotten institutions. It’s at an all-time high,” he said, before adding that the possible renewal of the contract of Navin Beekarry as the head of Icac is a bad signal.
The leaders of the Alliance de l’Espoir, Xavier-Luc Duval, leader of the opposition, and Paul Bérenger, leader of the MMM also commented on Betamax, especially the decision of the Council of Ministers to set up a commission of inquiry. For Xavier-Luc Duval, the government had no other choice, given the great popular anger in the country. “It was necessary to shed light on the Betamax affair,” he said.
Yesterday, the Council of Ministers decided to appoint a commission of inquiry into the awarding of the Betamax contract but also the circumstances that led to the termination of the contract in 2015. It will be chaired by a judge. But Paul Bérenger stated that in the past, there have been “bogus commissions of inquiry which acted more live cover-up machines”. He deplores the fact that the government has not specified whether the judge who will preside over the body will be “a sitting judge or a former one”.
