TRNUC hears complaints of abuse of power, harassment leading to forced work termination |15 November 2021
Mr De Speville
In its hearing sessions on Friday November 12, 2021, the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) was expected to hear a total of four people –two complainants and two witnesses, with one complainant in half and a witness in full closed sessions but because of some technical glitches, two complainants did not complete their presentations and one witness had to be rescheduled for a later date.
Case 0492 of Roy Finesse – Harassment and forced termination of employment from the SPTC
After submitting part of his complaint in closed session, Roy Finesse, who enrolled with the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) in February 1978 only a year after it was established in 1977, brought his complaint of harassment and eventual forced termination of employment with the corporation eight and a half years later.
An experienced accountant, Mr Finesse explained that he started by taking responsibility of the accounts section before being transferred to the workshop, traffic and last in the store where he was responsible for importing all the spare parts including tyres for the TATA buses.
He went on to note that during the time he was employed at the SPTC, he came to understand how the corporation was being run and which section had the most or least problems.
Gross irregularities and inflated invoices
Mr Finesse told the commission he believes that the bigger problem was in the store and import section where he uncovered a lot of irregularities, inflated invoices and how a corporation set up to benefit a large majority of our ordinary Seychellois brothers and sisters were being robbed and defrauded large sums of money by the same persons in authority who were preaching the principles of socialism.
He gave as examples the tyres for the buses that the SPTC was importing from Michelin and Pirelli, noting that the ones from Michelin were the best in terms of mileage for the Seychelles Rupee. He noted the fact that the Pirelli tyres were manufactured by a company owned by Italian businessman Mario Richi, a crony of President Albert Rene at that time, and it was not surprising to anyone that the management of the SPTC was pressured into importing the Pirelli tyres even though they were not economically beneficial to the SPTC.
“Even though I was told by the manager to continue importing the Pirelli tyres, I only ordered a small consignment while the bulk of the orders were for the Michelin tyres,” Mr Finesse remarked.
Mr Finesse said even the engineer knew what was happening but he was afraid to say anything.
“But as for me I did not have the courage and the conscience to watch a company that belongs to our people being defrauded so I stood by my decision,” he said.
He went on to note that there were so many malpractices and fraud going on in the store and it will take a long time to talk about them all.
He said when he took over the responsibility of the store, there were only two files so he set out to put the necessary order starting by introducing files for all the entities and filing all the invoices accordingly.
“I did my work based on my intelligence ad experience which I put to the benefit of the SPTC but following constant pressure from President Rene to ensure more Pirelli tyres were ordered, the manager always came to me but I brushed aside his requests because deep in my heart it pained me to see the SPTC being defrauded when my greatest wish was to see it prosper,” Mr Finesse said.
Mr Finesse also informed the commission that before the TATA buses were chosen to be used permanently by the SPTC, the corporation ran a six-month trial involving buses of six different makes before the most suitable one would be chosen and they were from – Leyland, Tata, Isuzu, Renault, Fiat and Mercedes.
He recalled that Renault and Isuzu failed miserably, Tata came out fourth, Fiat third while Leyland and Mercedes shared first place. But he said it was sad that the SPTC was told to take the TATA buses.
“TATA buses have the worse fuel injection pump and they are the worse polluters in the country,” Mr Finesse said.
He affirmed that had he stayed on at the SPTC, he would have ensured the Seychellois commuters would have got the best buses because he would have chosen the Mercedes make which is more comfortable and environmentally friendly.
He said one day the manager informed him that he had been instructed by the SPDF that the SPTC was going to order and stock spare parts including wheels for the Pinzgauer jeeps being used by the army at that time.
When the first consignment of spares arrived, the invoices were signed by an Austrian company. But on close inspection I realised the wheels were not of good quality.
He said when he found details of the real company it did not match the invoice and the prices were several times less.
“The same group of cronies with others included were trying to defraud the army and at the same time the SPTC was going to be part of the dirty scheme,” Mr Finesse pointed out.
He decided to take the matter to his general manager and assured him he was going to resign because he cannot be part of something so bad. Luckily the manager saw the enormity of the problem on their hands so he agreed that they place orders directly to the company.
But he said it did not take long for things to change when a document came from State House giving new directives with regard to placing orders and importation of spares.
Again Mr Finesse said he used his common sense and intelligence to detect all the tricks in the new procedures and ensure the SPTC did not lose out while being careful to keep all the proper supporting documents and invoices while pressure on the SPTC from the President’s office continue to build up.
Meanwhile another obstacle had emerged for Mr Finesse to deal with.
He explained how the chairperson of the SPTC at that time, Guy Morel – also a key government official – decided to use the SPTC to import a lot of parts for his hydroponics project at Ma Constance of which he refused to settle the invoices when Mr Finesse said he confronted him with them.
“He started to avoid me and always had excuses for not settling the invoices and later I learnt that the project at Ma Constance had been sold to the government,” said Mr Finesse.
Mr Finesse said eventually he was forcefully terminated from his job in April 1996 and the reason stated in his termination letter was ‘security reasons’.
“I had worked with the SPTC for eight and a half years and suddenly it was found that I did not have security clearance, this was laughable because the real reason was that I had uncovered all the fraud, stealing and defrauding by cronies of the State happening at the company.”
After he left the SPTC, Mr Finesse said he never looked for a job in government again knowing too well that after his abrupt termination that would be impossible.
Mr Finesse is expected to appear before the commission again on November 26 to recount his ordeal after he left the SPTC.
Case 0247 - Raymond De Speville: Forced resignation from the BODCO Group
Raymond De Speville had brought his complaint to the commission recounting how he was forced to resign from BODCO, the company he had helped to grow in order to prevent it from going down.
Mr De Speville recounted that his family moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when he was a child but returned 25 years later in 1978.
His first job was at the BODCO Group as an admin manager.
“It was the right decision that I made because it was to be the start of career which would make me extremely proud. After only 11 months I had built the reputation of being a good debt collector and I was offered a job in another company – the Builders Centre – and my salary doubled,” said Mr De Speville.
But Mr De Speville said he kept a good relationship with Basil Soundy of the BODCO Group.
He said it did not take him long to realise that the Italians running the Builders Centre were bleeding the company and I told them so.
Three years later Mr De Speville returned to the BODCO Group as he said Mr Soundy had asked him to come back as the company was expanding.
He said he went back to occupy the position of general manager and be one of the shareholders.
“It was also at that time that the government was easing itself into business and the horrors of the one party system was manifesting itself,” Mr Soundy said.
He said Mr Soundy was not an easy person to work with but they have grown to understand each other and were like brothers and he encouraged him to take in more people to train to manage the different sections of the company.
He noted that because often Mr Soundy did not see eye to eye with them on many issues and many of them left while he himself had submitted his resignation several times but was asked to stay.
“I also had my dreams which was to become a majority shareholder of the company,” Mr De Speville said. He said he was a fervent supporter of the SPUP then and like many other good people supporting the party at that time, they kept their vision of social progress and justice for the country and its people.
Meanwhile the situation in the country with government in business was not good for private businesses and many of them who dared to complain were ruined and forced to either close or sell their businesses. But as for BODCO it continued to prosper until he started to question what was happening to other businesses and made clear that he was not happy about it.
“I was sick and tired to see businesses being stolen while we continue to prosper so I spoke my mind and started questioning things. I still recall how my good friend Jean Dingwall was targeted and his business suffered and how he struggled to stay afloat,” said Mr De Speville.
But why was BODCO not affected? Mr De Speville said he never knew. But the only thing he said he knew was that Mr Soundy was not into politics and he never questioned anything he just went about his business and gave his time on some board and other social groupings.
Mr De Speville said at that time BODCO was also the best furniture supplier and manufacturer in the country and never dealing in cheap products but only quality goods. He said most of the furniture at State House and many hotels were supplied by BODCO.
But he noted that BODCO started to be targeted after he had started to question why other businesses were being stolen or ruined by the likes of Mukesh Valabhji who seemed to have a lot of support from government in whatever he was doing at the then SMB and many other businesses.
As more and more good businesses were being struck down, Mr De Speville said he became more frustrated with what was happening and an atmosphere of fear reigned among the business community while he continued to be more outspoken of the situation because he knew that Mr Valabhji could never beat him in fair trading.
He went on to detail to the commission several instances where a business was penalised or punished.
He noted that in December 1990 he wrote a letter to President Rene asking for an appointment to discuss mistrading, unfair business practices and other business related matters he wanted clarified but he received no reply, so in January 1991 he wrote another letter to President Rene detailing all that Mr Valabhji and some of his other business cronies were doing to BODCO and other businesses but again received no reply.
But eventually Mr Soundy received an appointment with the President and when he came back he cried when he told him, “Raymond unless you resign we gonna go under”.
After his forced resignation which was made to look like he resigned, Mr De Speville said he remained out of work for a year and a half during which he helped the Parti Seselwa with its underground work.
He recounted how he was almost killed by what he said were Rene’s thugs.
With the return of James Mancham he said things did not change much with Rene still in power and he coud not get another job.
In 2005 he left the country for Madagascar to help his sister who had settled there. He remained for five years before coming back in 2011 and did part time jobs with Vijay for some time before setting up his own small company at the age of 58.
“It is clear that I was denied my right to work and prosper in my own country while there are lots of people who have got rich, very rich by stealing and defrauding the country and our people,” Mr De Speville said bitterly.
He is expected to reappear before the Commission early next year to complete his presentation on the attempted attack on his life and certain other matters.
Marie-Anne Lepathy
