The Independent Commission against Corruption (Icac) has once more been refused access to documents of the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) in the context of the MCB fraud to the detriment of the National Pensions Fund (NPF). Senior Puisne judge Bernard Sik Yuen has decided not to give the institution the right to see those documents because he considers that the commission?s request ?appears more like a fishing expedition than anything else?, the more so as Icac had not informed the MCB it was doing so.

In the context of the investigation led by the Icac into the MCB fraud, the anti corruption body had asked the Court for copies of inspection reports for the last five years ? including the N?Tan report. But the Central Bank said that the Icac?s initiative to investigate this case was unjustified according to its statutory prerogatives.

The judge had already refused this right of access to the Icac, but he had asked the Bank of Mauritius to give its stand. The latter was also not very keen on giving the Icac this possibility. In fact, it even pointed out that the Bank of Mauritius Act stipulates that there may be information exchange between the Central bank and the Financial Services Commission under the seal of confidentiality but the Icac was not among the institutions that could benefit from such an exchange.