Monday, June 26, 2017

FORMER MINISTER DUGASSE LAND SCANDAL


On the 2nd June 2011, two days after a cabinet reshuffle whereby Jacquelin Dugasse was made to retire from public service as Land Minister, Dugasse was given a 99 years lease on over 3000 sq meters of prime land at Roche Caiman next to where Intelvision is situated. The former minister was accorded the property without going through the tender process as is required by law. This has been the hallmark of this government when it comes to top officials of Parti Lepep acquiring government land.



Dugasse, now the new CEO of the James Michel foundation, acquired the lease on V17664 through JaMar Properties Limited. The conditions of his lease on the land are spelt out clearly in the transfer document. There is no annual or monthly fee stipulated in the agreement, so a monthly fee of SR2020 can be derived from the stated lump sum over the 99 years. The property is still undeveloped in 2017. There is no evidence that the agreement has been fully complied with; there is a strong possibility that Dugasse is waiting to cash in on his investment by selling his lease to some rich foreigner. This will be another unfortunate episode in the sad state of affairs concerning State land in Seychelles.


Wednesday, June 21, 2017

NOLINE MUST RESIGN; MANRTEN!


LD555 (yes ironically 555) was sold to the MNA for Inner Islands in 2003 for peanuts from L`Union Estate company Ltd; a government owned parastatal.


In 2010 whilst owning LD555 the MNA for Inner Islands managed to purchase a luxury condominium on Mahe at Chateau Vallon in English River from the Housing Finance Company Ltd(HFC); also a government owned financial body. These apartments were supposed to be allocated to returning graduates.  It is important to note that this went against the well published government land allocation policy and this transfer of the luxury condominium was signed by Charles Bastienne.


In 2014 the Inner Island MNA sold LD555 for SR1.1million thus making a cool SR1 million plus profit. She laughed all the way to the bank on the back of L`Union Estate. Now we know why she indicated in her intervention on the 7th of June  that L`Union Estate is very effective; she benefitted from it! She has a million reasons why it is effective. Corruption is defined as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. This situation was revealed in the National Assembly’s` 3 week record-breaking motion on La Digue brought by the Leader of the opposition.


Sophola had stated in her election campaign that “I will ensure that La Digue gets a new school and hospital, both with modern facilities” however she recently flip flopped on these promises claiming it is not a priority as modern facilities doesn’t help in the care of patients. Sophola is from a diehard SPUP family, claiming even as far back as 1983 she was Executive member in the district.

Abuse of government land must be no longer tolerated and it is time for the people of La Digue to ask her to resign; manrten!

http://candidates.partilepep.com/La-Digue-Inner-Islands/16-meet-Miss-Noline.html


AP

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

JJ SPIRIT FOUNDATION ACCOUNTS UNAUDITED SINCE 2013?

The Deputy Registrar of Companies has written to the JJ Spirit Foundation to point out amongst other issues that the foundation has not submitted its audited accounts since 2013. The Deputy Registrar has only this year received Jj Spirit Foundation's audited account for 2008-2012.


Could this mean that the foundation (which is headed by a man who was none other the president of Seychelles from 2004- October 2016, when he quit barely one year into his third mandate); had not audited its accounts until the PL government lost its majority in the National Assembly and the LDS led 6th NA started to ask questions and investigate into various institutions?

Whatever the reasons are it does not bode well for JJ Spirit Foundation to have not submitted audited accounts before that as its patron should have known better. After all he was preaching transparency and accountability!

The Foundation is also the owner of the Espace building and there again serious questions have been raised. If the foundation is a not for profit organization how come it is advertising the Espace building as a commercial entity? Does the NGO pay taxes?

Another anomaly which one gleans from the letter the Office of Registrar of Companies wrote to JJ Spirit is the fact that the office bearers of the foundation are not listed. Isn't this illegal? Again is this what expects from an organization whose patron was the Head of State?

Var Management and JJ Spirit Foundation JJ Spirit Foundation calls itself an NGO and when it comes to charitable NGOS, one common factor is that they are always finding means of raising funds to carry out their charitable work. Normally an NGO which owns a building like JJ Spirit owns Espace, would have its own management team to ensure things are done properly and with a view towards cutting costs, it would not pay an outside firm to manage its building!



However, when it comes to JJ Spirit Foundation, the contrary seems to be the case. The so called NGO has contracted out the management of the ESPACE building to a company named VAR Management. The shocking part of this deal is that VAR Management is owned by Mr. David Savy, a company named Sirrus Management of which David Savy is the director and Basil Hoareau! Mr David Savy own Sirrus Management.

Espace building was funded in a large part through donations as well as other means. Since it calls itself an organization which does charitable activities for the betterment of the country and its youths, would it not have been proper practice to tender out the management of this building if there was a need for an external team to do this? Have the donors unwittingly funded a milking cow for close associates of PL? Why does Jj Spirit Foundation takes CSR contributions if it can afford to pay a management company?



According to its registration papers VAR Management is a company which can do almost anything from managing buildings to investing in other companies, from doing import and export as well as wholesale and retail and given its connections it could easily muscle out competitors in almost every field of economic activity in this country.

Source: Lavwa Lalyans