More power for the commissions of enquiry

The President, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, accepted to extend the attributions of the Ahnee commission on Mare-Chicose, following a request made by the opposition leader, Navin Ramgoolam. It will also enquire into the circumstances and the reasons that led to the cancellation of the new contract of the site management in February 2004.The opposition now has something else in its sights: the Glover commission. Navin Ramgoolam is asking for the attributions of this commission to be extended. According to him, the present attributions will not clarify whether procedures were respected regarding the purchase of two gantry cranes by the Cargo Handling Corporation from a company in Abu Dhabi. He says the attributions are very limited since they are only charged with inquiring whether ?bribes have been paid or taken in the process of the procurement of the two-ship to shore gantry cranes.?

The school IT project back on the road

After six months in the freezer, the school IT project will gradually start again by June. 50 classes of informatics will be set up each year for the next six years. This is aimed at providing every primary school with at least 1 class of informatics. Over the next 6 years all schools are being encouraged to create an ?informatics corner?. However this has not been the case. The project was expected to start by January but it was not possible since it was big and schools were not at all ready for it. The final project is not as extensive as expected, but it is a good beginning. According to Steven Obeegadoo, this will allow pupils to experience the benefits of the project on small scale.

Possible resignation of BOI managing director

The managing director of the Board of Investment (BOI), Gérard Sanspeur, could resign from the board. He cannot stand the government?s interference in the board?s affairs anymore. The latest example is the insults by a member of the government after he dared reprimand the investment promotion director, Dev Chamroo. After the board considered that Dev Chamroo mismanaged the Cisco systems file, it made the decision to nominate him as Facilitation Director since his contract was coming to an end. Although the two jobs are considered to be on the same level in the hierarchy, Dev Chamroo refused the proposal. Last Monday,minister Bachoo phoned Gérard Sanspeur to tell him he was very dissatisfied with this decision, using ?abusive language and insulting terms,? according to a report submitted to the government house.