After speaking highly of the conclusions of the commission of inquiry on Sale by levy when it was made public last Friday, its instigator, Harish Boodhoo, has suddenly changed his mind. ?My first reaction wasn?t correct. I had made a false assessment of the situation. I spent the night studying the report. Now I have a clearer understanding!?

He believes that the chairman of the commission, Sir Victor Glover, has not really taken the victims? problems into consideration and has instead given ?a certificate of virginity and morality to lawyers.? Victims say they are totally disillusioned with these conclusions.

Harish Boodhoo has never stopped denouncing the mafia of lawyers and financial institutions since March in his newspaper, Sunday Vani. He said he had talked to hundreds of victims ready to denounce actions of this ?mafia?. As a result, the government decided to set up a commission of inquiry to see if such a ?mafia? really existed and how the authorities could deal with this potential problem.

The commission?s instigator thanked the prime minister for setting up the commission of inquiry. However, what he reproaches both the government and the commission?s president is not to have gone to the root of the problem and, above all, not to have proposed solutions to help those who have already lost their patrimony.

No rush to take further action

?The DPP should have opened the files again to have the seizures and irregular sales cancelled. A fund to support victims as well as a plan to relocate them would have been welcomed.?

Allegations against two lawyers, Iqbal Dauhoo and Osman Abbasakoor, have already been taken seriously by the commission of inquiry and nine others have been diverted to the police or the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC). The report is not the end of the story, but should, on the contrary, result in new investigations in some cases. The ICAC however said it would not rush into anything: it will wait for government to ratify the commission?s recommendations before taking any further action.

Harish Boodhoo has the impression that he has been totally discarded from this case although he was himself the instigator of it. ?90% of these recommendations are inspired by my articles.? Why does he criticise these recommendations then? Because none of the legal practitioners have been bothered in those recommendations. The latter propose solutions to fight indebtedness and the replacement of the sale by levy system by another one that prevents owners from suddenly losing everything. Both consumers and credit companies are blamed for this situation. Strict regulations should be implemented concerning credit sales and advertising.

Mediator between debtor & creditor

Actually, the commission thinks that seizure procedures should be modernised, and people should be well informed on the dangers of credit and the amounts people are allowed to borrow or buy through hire purchase should be reviewed.

The report also recommends that the sale by levy system be replaced by sale through sealed tenders. It also proposes the creation of an indebtedness commission to prevent consumers losing their land and houses. This commission should have a right of access to contracts between creditors and debtors especially when lands and houses are given as guarantee.

This commission should also be granted more powers in seizure procedures on mortgaged properties. It should be able to order financial institutions to write debts off or reschedule payments over a longer period. It should finally act as a mediator and a conciliator between debtor and creditor.

Harish Boodhoo is thus not satisfied with these recommendations and intends to make his grudges public. At a meeting with ?victims? of the sale by levy system, he said the only way to make things move in the right direction was to take to the streets. Hence, they will meet at the Marie Reine de La Paix social centre next Saturday and will see whether they will start a hunger strike or not, their aim being to appeal to international opinion.