Interview: Dan Maraye, Former Governor - Bank of Mauritius “Political interference in our institutions is the main cause of decadence”

• ‘The only way the BAI Group could have been salvaged would have been through a form of stimulus package’
• ‘For the sake of transparency, we all wish for the full nTan Report to be made public’

As from 2nd April 2015, Mauritius has been spending a lot of time and energy trying to weather the storm in the wake of the work of deconstruction of its financial sector launched since that time. The latest in the series is the publication of a report from Singaporean consultants nTan to explain how the business of the erstwhile British American group was mishandled, resulting in significant losses to the detriment of the trusting public – depositors, insurance policy holders, financial investors. The work of reconstruction, it appears, has been undertaken by enacting a law such as the Captive Insurance Act which is believed to create some ten thousand jobs. In the midst of all this upset, we have, this week, sought the views of Dan Maraye, former Governor of the Bank of Mauritius, after the publication by the Bank of Mauritius of a redacted version of the nTan report on the BA group and how to interpret the unfolding events.

Excerpts:

“I am appalled that MauBank which is only one week old and government has announced an injection of public funds to the tune of Rs3bn and negotiations for its takeover have already started with a major bank in Dubai. As a matter of good governance, government should clearly state its objectives with regard to the future of MauBank as considerable public funds are involved. In case of any takeover, it would be more appropriate to call for bids internationally and the whole process should be fully transparent…”

“It is clear that political interference in our institutions is the main cause of decadence. The hands of politics have been very visible in our institutions. Is it a coincidence that during the Labour Party government 2005-2014, the second Deputy Governors of the Bank of Mauritius have been former executives from the BAI group?”

Mauritius Times