The government, a Minister of Finance and even the Governor of the Bank of Mauritius cannot have absolute power over public money. This is what the leader of the opposition, Xavier-Luc Duval made clear during his press conference on Tuesday, July 20, following his PNQ in Parliament. The PMSD leader wanted to know the details of the Rs30 billion loan from the Bank of Mauritius to the Mauritius Investment Corporation Ltd (MIC).
According to him, it was his duty as a parliamentarian and leader of the opposition to provide the population with the maximum transparency and to shed light on the expenses incurred by MIC.
Xavier-Luc Duval made a point of specifying that MIC is a simple company and not a bank. According to him, the Minister of Finance must provide information to Parliament. However, he wants to know why the government wants to hide the information.
The opposition leader said that there is evidence and disturbing information that several companies have benefited from loans of several hundred million rupees by MIC. The main beneficiaries would be people close to the government. Adding that a loan of Rs 200 million was granted to construct a building with office space on a three-acre plot of land leased from Landscope (Mauritius) Ltd, while according to Xavier-Luc Duval, 400 m2 of empty space is available at Ebène.
