Blog: Medpoint - Red herrings to distract from those truly responsible

Following Pravind Jugnauth’s warped reasoning, if a Labour Minister is charged under PoCA, all Labour MPs should similarly resign in solidarity with suspected corruption and cross over to the opposition because of the alleged « manère de faire » of ICAC. What nonsense! The MedPoint  « tainted » government transaction stinks of conflict of interests not of Rajesh Jeetah’s making.

Per procedure, any government acquisition of land, buildings, plant and equipment are normally initiated by the issue of tenders. According to former Health Minister Rajesh Jeetah, the government had decided to purchase property for the purposes of a Hospital for Women and Children and for a National Geriatric Hospital with an area between 4,500 and 6,500 square meters. Again, according to Jeetah, a provision of Rs100m was made for the acquisition relating to the Geriatric Project.

Rajesh Jeetah’s early ‘suspicious’ involvement
Dr Krishan Malhotra, the main owner of MedPoint (also referred to as a clinic of the Jugnauth family), had reportedly emailed former Minister Rajesh Jeetah on Sunday 17th January 2010 with the view to selling the clinic to the government. Instead of rejecting Dr Malhotra’s expressed interest at the time when no tender was issued, the then Health Minister Jeetah entertained the interest and even sent in his assessors (including doctors) to visit MedPoint soon afterwards on 22nd January 2010, with his technicians even expressing a « preference » for MedPoint given its existing facilities. This was well before the tender was prepared by the same technicians and issued on 30th April 2010 and deemed to have been approved by Jeetah who was previously in personal correspondence with Dr Malhotra and stated the « urgency of the matter ». All those developments do appear very suspicious indeed with obvious irregularities on the one hand, or a use of discretion or abuse thereof on the other. Should Jeetah be prosecuted for this? According to Pravind Jugnauth, leader of the MSM now in opposition, and Paul Bérenger, leader of the MMM opposition, he certainly should !

Maya Hanoomanjee’s role
The tender for the Geriatric Hospital was issued on 30th April 2010 under Rajesh Jeetah, five days before the 5th May 2010 general elections after which Maya Hanoomanjee replaced Jeetah as Health Minister. The requisite area for the Hospital was between 4,500 and 6,500 m2, but the area of MedPoint was only 3,900 m2. How could Maya Hanoomanjee have considered MedPoint, let alone go for the Rs145m second valuation carried out in October 2010 (from Rs75m on the first valuation a few weeks earlier), wrote a note to Pravind Jugnauth, then Finance Minister, starting with “Dear Pravind” asking him to make provision for the round-up figure of Rs150m and fast-tracked the transaction to its conclusion on 29th December 2010 to further benefit Dr Malhotra Capital Gains Tax to the tune of Rs22m which would have applied after the 29th? How could Pravind Jugnauth have approved the higher valuation of Rs145m based on criteria not found in the tender since the second valuation also reportedly included the cost of a replacement building, bearing in mind that the replacement building does not exist and cannot form part of the contract, and the cost of the unused and second-hand medical equipment when it is not government policy to purchase second-hand equipment to treat Mauritians? How is former Minister Rajesh Jeetah to blame in all this as he did not conclude the transaction even though he may well be asked why he did not speak out before, especially given the anomalies he created before the tender was issued?

MSM Ministers’ resignations
Does it come as a surprise that Maya Hanoomanjee and those Civil Servants, such as the Government Chief Valuer Yodhun Bissessur, have been arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and provisionally charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PoCA)? After Hanoomanjee’s arrest, the leader of the Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM) Pravind Jugnauth must have sensed that his turn will surely come, especially given that he is the brother in law of Dr Malhotra and also a relative of Maya Hanoomanjee and a shareholder in MedPoint. This case stinks of conflict of interests not of Rajesh Jeetah’s making. Pravind Jugnauth and the other five MSM Ministers resigned, and all the MSM MPs crossed the floor to the opposition in an attempt to put political pressure on the government to stop ICAC in its tracks alleging they did not agree with its « manère de faire » (whatever this means!) and proclaiming their « solidarity » with Maya Hanoomanjee. Following Pravind Jugnauth’s warped reasoning, if a Labour Minister is charged under PoCA, all Labour MPs should similarly resign in solidarity with suspected corruption and cross over to the opposition because of the alleged « manère de faire » of ICAC. What nonsense!

Bravado
In acts of bravado, Pravind Jugnauth has, for weeks, been taunting ICAC and provoking its investigators to summon him, even alleging that the investigators are « scared » of him. Maybe they are. Who knows? He and his cohorts, including his newfound ally Paul Bérenger, leader of the MMM Opposition who originally exposed the MedPoint deal and wanted the resignations of both Pravind Jugnauth and Maya Hanoomanjee, argued that the foundations for the purchase of MedPoint were laid by former Health Minister Rajesh Jeetah alleging that the tender issued on 30th April 2010 under Jeetah was « taillé sur mesure » for MedPoint. Given the superficial area of MedPoint compared to the area specified in the tender alone should demonstrate that the tender could not have been « taillé sur mesure » as alleged. This can only be a red herring to deviate attention from those who are truly responsible for the controversial government purchase of MedPoint. Similarly, the fact that the Vice PM Dr Rashid Beebeejaun own less than 1% of shares in MedPoint through the company Medinvest has no bearing on the matter although this too is being used as a red herring.

Conclusion
However, people want results. ICAC has been investigating the MedPoint controversial and « tainted » purchase for over 8 months and, up to now, Pravind Jugnauth has not yet been questioned on his role in the whole affair.  No wonder he is so vociferous and upbeat against ICAC (and the Police too)! He may very well be truly scared and using reverse psychology to combat his fear that he too may be arrested and charged just like Maya Hanoomanjee and the other Civil Servants involved in the scandal were. It is deplorable that ICAC has wasted so much time with Paul Bérenger’s hearsay allegations made in public about PM Ramgoolam’s involvement in the scandal involving, in turn, further hearsay allegations from Dr Joomaye and former MSM Minister S Soodhun who they also interviewed after being summoned when they were neither involved in the MedPoint deal nor did they contact ICAC of their own free will to disclose any relevant information they allegedly possessed, and given that Ramgoolam had already referred the matter to the Police to investigate Bérenger’s alleged diffusion of false news and criminal defamation against him. Although ICAC may be said to be doing a good job, it is not beyond criticism for the delay as delay defeats the purpose of justice. Pravind Jugnauth is clearly making the most out of it. But for how long?