For the past few weeks the Seychelles People’s Defence Force (SPDF) has been running a full-page colour advert in the People weekly newspaper to the exclusion of all other publications in Seychelles. The preference given to the SPPF is tantamount to a direct financial contribution by the government to the party from public funds.
The SPPF is no stranger to the SPDF. The SPDF was formerly the Seychelles People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). SPLA was created after the coup d’etat in 1977, the only liberation army to exist after the liberation rather than before it. Although the SPLA existed before the SPPF, it became an arm of the party once the one-party state was established in 1979.
No one knows how many members the SPDF has. This is regarded as a state secret of sorts. However, the two British academics who visited Seychelles in November 2006, Dr. Bruce Baker and Professor Roy May of Coventry University, stated in their report Seychelles: a second opportunity to democratise, that the number of soldiers in the SPDF was 200, although they say, combined with the National Guard it could number 1000.
The National Guard was formerly the Seychelles People’ Militia, better known as the “militia”. Its members were strictly SPPF adherents enrolled to act as informers in the parishes during the one party state. Although its name was changed to National Guard when the
Although the SPDF have about 200 soldiers, the budget allocation for the Department of Defence for 2007 is SR 77,000,000. The Department of Defence however, has been over spending on its budget almost every year, particularly the year before a presidential election. In 2005, while its budget allocation was SR69, 000,000 it actually spent SR 85,000,000 or 23% more. In 2006, a presidential election year, the Department of Defence budget allocation was set at SR77, 000,000, a 12% increase from the budget of the previous year. The actual reported spending was two million rupees more.
The overspending of the Department of Defence has never been the subject of an investigation by the Auditor General nor the Finance Committee of the National Assembly dominated by the SPPF. According to the budget book given to members of the Assembly on budget day in December 2005 for example, the over expenditure of exactly SR 12,000,000 was not in personnel emoluments but on a line item called “specific costs”. This has given a new meaning to the word “specific”.
It is not known how much the Ministry of Defence paid to the People newspaper for the two adverts that have appeared so far. Whatever has been paid out is a direct contribution by the Government to the party of President Michel.
