Air Seychelles, which for over two decades has been selling tickets from a ground floor shop in Victoria House, a privately owned building in the centre of Victoria next to the clock tower, is to have new ticketing sales offices by the end of this year. The new unit will be situated in a government owned building called Independence House. A number of shop fronts in this building have remained un-occupied for sometime now, indicating that business confidence has been on the low side lately.
Hidden from the public gaze by plywood , work is underway to fit out part of the ground floor of Independence House, facing Kings Gate House. One of the units to be occupied by the State owned airline until recently housed Federal Express, a courier service run by Air Seychelles, while the other used to be occupied by an electronic goods shop which decamped to newly built premises last year.
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While the existing ticket office at Victoria House appears cramped, especially the public area, the decision to move to a government owned building with un-occupied shop fronts indicate a decision more in favour of beefing up government than commercial sense.
In the eight months of this year the cash deficit of the government has reached a staggering SR 262 million. Under the circumstances anything appears to help. But the decision to create two new “police forces” under Minister Joel Morgan to police the environment and the traffic, employing some 30 people, surely adds to government spending rather than reduces it.