?To be efficient, effective, for its development and for its people, an economy needs proper access to land information.? Lloyd Stone, an Australian expert from Landgate, a government land administration consultancy is adamant. Land information is essential to ensure the implementation of infrastructure, equity in land valuation and a proper fiscal policy. In that context the West Australia Land management minister, Michelle Roberts, and experts from Landgate have come to carry out the next steps in their surveying mission and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the government to exchange know-how. The Landgate team has already submitted three reports: a land management plan in December 2006, with high-level options, another one in March, with six staff.

Valuation was not included and nobody knows for the moment who will carry out that task. ?A request for proposal has to still to be released and advertised?, explains Lloyd Stone. The valuation process will include field study and compilation of data collected through a computer-assisted management appraisal.

Lloyd Stone stresses that a proper survey may need the participation of some 100 fieldworkers. ?We think that the profile required does not need to be that of professionals. Teams with a minimal knowledge of land planning should fit in.? At the end of the day, a map of property boundaries will be realized and a Panel Identification Number given to each property. Registration data, valuation and the actual cadastre will be linked. ?About 30 years of deeds need to be scanned through a special equipment. Tenders have to be drawn but we know that a Mauritian firm has the necessary equipment to perform that task.?

However, for this to be totally effective, other tasks await. ?The staff from the Land ministry will have to be trained to manage the new system properly. In the future, even private land surveyors may follow such training.?

<B>Choice of a mixed system</B>

Reactions to the choice of Australian consultancy are growing more positive after the government decided to adopt proposals from the association of solicitors. These include the evaluation of tax on the size of built property and prevention against unrestrained development.

The initial system, based on the British model, had been seen as a threat by some, who feared the State only would have been involved in any land transaction. And, once the deeds drawn, even fraudulently, it would have stayed in the system. A mixed system, accordingly to our Franco-British legal framework, has finally been chosen, which, for example, allows solicitors to cancel some deeds.

?The new cadastre was long awaited but with the introduction of the National Residential Property Tax, it was a little like putting the cart before the horse?? comments a member of the legal profession. According to him, there was really a need to reactualize, but the former cadastre did not have to be totally rejected. ?In everything you have black sheep who use the system for their own benefit. Each legal profession should be able to punish them.?

The former cadastre was partly established through French law and some still regret that the expertise has not been sought from Réunion, where the cadastre is also based on the Napoleon Code. Some geographic maps of Mauritius have already been drawn by the French Institut géographique national. ?Have the most practical, less costly choices been made?? asks the lawyer.

?Once the cadastre has been achieved, the costs needed for a regular reappraisal of the valuation register, say every five years, will be considerably less?, assures the Australian expert. The new cadastre will also ensure international standards for our land management system.

This will not just be a matter of using universal measurements like the meter to calculate property dimensions. ?When the survey is carried out, information will be collected in every department of the property, from the owner?s name to the number of bedrooms and the area land. This information, the most accurate possible, will be computerized and will be connected to other systems.? One benefit will be seen when taking loans from banks, which will have the estimates directly and without heavy procedures. If the implementation of the new cadastre turns into a total success, it will be a true example of how good governance should materialize.