Le Matinal: Blog: Bank of Mauritius - Former Governor Basant Roi feels a foreigner would have done a better job than he did

Blog: Bank of Mauritius - Former Governor Basant Roi feels a foreigner would
have done a better job than he did
================================================================================
M. Rafic Soormally (Guest Author) on Thursday 25th of February 2010 - 09:12:00
 
Under the BoM Act, Directors other than the Governor and his two Deputies (who
are appointed full-time by the President on the recommendations of the Prime
Minister) are referred to as the « other Directors » and they are appointed on
a part-time basis by the Minister of Finance. In the light of complaints made by
some Directors against Mr Bheenick, complaints taken up in Parliament by MP
Suren Dayal in November 2009, the Government has set up a Fact Finding Committee
(FFC) chaired by former Chief Justice Sir Victor Glover to look into and report
on the allegations formulated against the Bank’s Governor.
Mr Basant Roi, a former Governor of the Bank, is trying his very best to show
that he is not siding with the complainants. He previously said that « _le
board n’a pas le droit de se mêler de la gestion quotidienne de la BOM_ »
but also contradicted himself when he said that « _le gouverneur a des comptes
à rendre au board pour toutes ses initiatives et decisions_ » [« _Basant Roi
: « Le gouverneur doit rendre des comptes au board_ » », l’Express 13
January 2010]. He also wrongly argued that the BoM is like a registered
shareholding company under the Companies’ Act where the Board is ultimately
responsible for the management of the company implying that the Bank’s
Governor should take orders from the Board like in a company which is governed
by the Companies Act rather than the BoM Act.
Mr Basant Roi’s contradictions and clear misunderstanding between the
functions of the Board in a shareholding company and that of the BoM have
perhaps led him to believe that a foreigner (meaning a non-Mauritian) would do a
better job as Governor of the Mauritian Central Bank. He came up with this wish
after it became known that the government is waiting for the findings of Sir
Victor Glover of the FFC before deciding whether or not Mr Bheenick’s
appointment would be renewed. It is just another way of saying that he does not
wish the re-appointment of Mr Bheenick whatever the outcome of the FFC, thus
echoing the wish of Mr Jacques Li Wan Po, one of the « other Directors » of
the Bank.
Mr Basant Roi can only speak for himself, that is, in believing that a foreigner
would have done a better job than he did, but he certainly cannot speak for
Oxford educated Mr Bheenick who has a much clearer understanding of the BoM Act
and all the qualifications, experience and abilities to do the job. Through his
added contradictions and misunderstanding, Mr Basant Roi amply shows that the
role of the full-time Directors and the part-time « other Directors » should
be more clearly defined through appropriate amendments to the BoM Act and not
through the Companies Act which he is trying to import into the BoM Act. Instead
of preying on the misfortune of Mr Bheenick to blow his own trumpet, Mr Basant
Roi should rather make representations either in writing or in person to the
FFC.
M Rafic Soormally
20 February 2010