Much is being said and done these days by Mr Bert Cunningham, former Director of the Customs. He seems to be on the spree to tarnish the image of the Republic of Mauritius on the international sphere, undo all that have been done till now to build our reputation in our fight against fraud and corruption, and destabilise our sacred institutions like the Office of the DPP, ICAC and may be Parliament (he has asked us to watch).

But in fact Mr Cunningham is doing a great service to our nation and our people by questioning certain very realities of this country. Whether he is right or wrong, and whether he is acting out of sheer ignorance or malice, his contributions as Head of the Customs cannot be denied. He is the one who has always shown courage and determination to fight fraud and corruption at the Customs and in the process he brought billions into the government coffers which otherwise would have been used to gratify the corrupt ones. However, a few points need reflection.

The ICAC is still-born since its inception. Despite over a hundred million rupees of the tax-payers? money being pumped each year, it is still creeping in its craddle. Many believe that the current ICAC is worse than the much criticised ICAC during the tenure of Navin Beekarry. The man in the street believes that it is more apt at laundering criminals through its so-called preliminary and further investigations and the ensuing conclusions. Those in power still believe in the efficiency of the ICAC to fight fraud and corruption, but the public opinion firmly believes otherwise. It becomes too naive when the ruling elite says that Mr Bert Cunningham should go to the ICAC with his allegations, when we can understand his deep frustration with some of the conclusions reached by the ICAC on cases referred to by him. May be the ICAC should communicate its conclusions more explicitly at the end of all major investigations and the possibility of public hearings should not be ruled out.

Moreover, we should wake up to the realities of this country. If Mr Paul Berenger cannot aspire to the post of PM just because of the colour of his skin, we can imagine the reaction of some twisted minds to the fact that a foreigner was at the Head of the Customs and that too at a huge pay packet. Though Mr Cunningham was earning Rs 1 million monthly and almost thrice that of the Director General of the MRA, we must admit that the guy was competent and deserved this. It is not that he was earning too much, but may be many professionals working elsewhere are earning relatively less.

Another pertinent question to ask is whether Mr Bert Cunningham has been the victim of xenophobic tendencies of some "Third World" mentalities. To cite one example given to me by a friend: a hotel in the eastern coast had an Italian expatriate as General Manager. This fellow was a professional of the tourism sector and wanted to put an end to years of fraud and indiscipline going on there. However many employees who feared that they will have to put an end to their fraudulent activities dubbed the hotel GM as a racist and wrote anonymous letters to the Passport & Immigration Office, ICAC and other authorities to have him deported.

Many employees also denounced him as earning a huge salary (which in fact he was not) simply because he is a white person. He preferred to resign and leave Mauritius as he was sick of such puerile behaviours of some of his employees and executives. The friend later told me that the outgoing GM has been replaced by another European with more than 25 years of experience in hotel management. At first the new GM was glorified by all as he took a few weeks to settle down and was rather passive during these times. But as he started questioning certain ways of doing things and putting in place sound operational and financial procedures, he too has been dubbed as a racist and the same scenario of anonymous letters has allegedly started again. In many institutions, lower level employees are encouraged by members of senior management to denounce expatriate managers through anonymous letters. To some extent, Mr Bert Cunningham seems to be a victim of such charade.

Last but not least, the Board of the MRA has decided to withhold the compensation to be paid to Mr Bert Cunningham for breach of confidentiality. However this argument is difficult to digest since, whether he is right or wrong, Mr Bert Cunningham is a whistleblower. The act of whistleblowing is encouraged implicitly by the Prevention of Corruption Act and many jurisdictions such as the USA and the UK have legislated in order to make it legal as well as to protect the whistleblowers. Fraud, corruption, nepotism and favouritism plague not only the public sector but also private firms. Many whistleblowers who have tried to denounce unsound practices are intimidated until they join the bandwagon or involuntarily bury the truth. Indeed the allegations of Mr Bert Cunningham should be seriously considered and enquired upon. And if they are malicious and baseless, then Mr Bert Cunningham should be dealt with accordingly by the law. On his part, the Attorney General should come with a full-fledged Whistleblowing bill as he announced at the beginning of his mandate.

Though Dr Navin Ramgoolam lost the elections in September 2000, he will always be highly regarded as being the only Prime Minister who dared to sacrifice two of his ministers on the eve of the general elections. Following the allegations made by Mr Bert Cunningham, he has got another golden opportunity to confirm his determination to fight fraud and corruption. Putting political dividends for the 2010 general elections aside, conducting an independent and impartial enquiry on the allegations made by Mr Cunningham will surely confirm the PM as one of the greatest statesman of the Republic of Mauritius in the eye of Mauritians as well as foreigners. This is not giving in to the demands of one controversial Mr Cunningham, but rather setting a milestone in the fight against graft for generations to come.

<B>Navin SANDHOO</B>