For some weeks now people have been talking about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) taking over Central Bank. To date there has been no concrete official declaration about the subject, so whether this is true or not still remains to be seen. Last week the IMF paid us another visit, but everyone who is somebody in our political hierarchy took a flight out of here just like a bat from hell – Mr. President took a flight out to the Beijing Olympics, former President Mr. Rene went off to Australia and the Minister responsible for finance went shopping with the family in Singapore and Cheng-Leng, Central Bank Governor, escaped to Mauritius where he is still in hiding until now. None of them wanted to put their signatures on the doted line to commit Seychelles to explain to our Creditors why the government has defaulted on their commitments to pay the 54.75 million Euros. Poor Ahmed Afif, he was ordered to go on SBC TV to cover up for his bosses for this major fiasco.
However, if the IMF really does take charge of our Central Bank this will be a major about face for the government. We are sure that you can remember when the SPPF leader former President Rene stated that any IMF programme will mean more hardship for the Seychellois and for that reason they will never bow down to that institution. Similarly, President James Alix Michel taking a cue from his Boss, also made a similar statement on SBC television when he promised that his government will never devalue our rupee because it will create too much hardship for the most vulnerable in society.
This went as far as being debated in the National Assembly where the now Speaker of the Assembly then Leader of Government Business also explained what will be the repercussions if they do seek IMF’s assistance. Since 1998 when an IMF Fact Finding Mission came to Seychelles - according to their findings, Seychelles was heading for a financial breakdown if immediate measures were not taken to curb government’s expenditure – that was ten years ago – they never listened.
The sore point for the government with the IMF has always been the way government keeps spending millions of rupees in various projects like the east coast reclamation, desalination plants, the Coetivy Prawn Farm and huge housing projects. These projects have cost the government a lot of money – money we did not have in the first place. President Michel during his campaign for the presidency wrote off millions in housing loans due to government as an inducement to win the presidency. It had the desired effect, he won the presidency and the economy went into free fall, now we have entered the ‘disaster zone’.
Today whether the government likes it or not Seychellois families are facing huge financial constraints. With the rupee going down in value and the extremely high cost of living - things are only going to get worse. For a long time now experts have been saying that government should try and curb their spending but instead we keep seeing the National Assembly approving budget surpluses and fat salaries for themselves, ministers, judges, former presidents and sitting president included. The party is now well and truly over!