Blitz Bureau
PORT LOUIS: Police in Mauritius have issued an order for the arrest of the former central bank Governor in connection to an inquiry into a conspiracy to defraud case, according to an Al Jazeera report.
Former central bank governor Harvesh Kumar Seegolam was out of the country and would be arrested as soon as he returned, police said in a notice in Mauritius newspapers. The action by the police antimoney-laundering unit, said the Al Jazeera report, is the first significant one from the Government of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who said last week the outgoing Government had falsified the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), budget deficit and public debt figures for years.
In a report issued to Parliament, Ramgoolam also accused the central bank of printing money to fund the Government’s Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC), set up in 2020 to help companies deal with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was meant to receive funding from the bank’s official foreign exchange reserves, Ramgoolam’s report said. “The printing of money by the Bank of Mauritius to fund the MIC was an irresponsible act which has had deleterious effects on the monetary system, more so that the banking system was already flush with excess liquidity,” the report said.
Ramgoolam returned to his post as Prime Minister after winning a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary vote in November. Mauritius is recognised as one of the continent’s most stable democracies and has developed a successful economy underpinned by its finance, tourism and agricultural sectors since gaining independence.
