Revamped logo totalled in at R279,000, not £30,000, minister clarifies |14 September 2022

Following public outcry over the £30,000 tweaked tourism logo unveiled last week, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Sebastien Pillay, yesterday sought clarifications regarding the actual cost and procedures followed in securing the branding element.

The cost of the revamped logo totalled in at R279,539 and not £30,000 as was announced, the Minister for Tourism and Foreign Affairs Sylvestre Radegonde clarified.

He also noted that the ‘Union’ company based in Scotland secured the contract through direct tender, after initially securing the contract to rebrand and design the tourism logo in 2006.

Discussions to review the logo commenced as far back as 2019, on account of the challenges faced by the department in reproducing the logo on marketing materials. As such, the decision to revamp the same logo, refresh the colours and downsize slightly, to allow for cheaper and faster reproduction, he said.

“It is not a new logo, it is a tweaking, a slight adjustment to the logo we already had, which is why there was no need for a full-fledged bidding,” Minister Radegonde stated, justifying why there was no need for cabinet approval, nor was there an opportunity for Seychellois artists to partake in the process.

“At the start, when we had discussions with Union, at the time, they proposed £34,600. With negotiations between my team and theirs, and they wanted to give a 13 percent discount, and following other reductions, around 50 percent, this reduced. I later found out there were some other expenses amounting to R27,900 locally, which we had spent in preparation for the logo. Therefore the reduction on the logo, and the R27,900 spent locally amounts to R279,539,” he added.

Asked whether President Wavel Ramkalawan was misleading the population on Friday evening, when during his Presidential press conference he said the contract was awarded through selective bidding.

Minister Radegonde asserted that there was a direct bidding process as opposed to tendering out the revamping, as approved by the Procurement Oversight Unit (POU).

Explaining how the Tourism department markets Seychelles as a destination, principal secretary Sherin Francis clarified that much of the work is done in-house by trained youths, with the department outsourcing only when absolutely necessary.

Along with its local content network, comprising photographers, videographers and copyrighters, content is to be created using the revamped logo. The range of content is expected to amount to R1.5 million to R2 million.

Laura Pillay