Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) hearings IEA, finance department, SRC, department of defence questioned |03 August 2021

The Finance and Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly further questioned four public entities during its public hearings last week on Thursday, July 29.

These were the Industrial Estates Authority (IEA), the department of finance, the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) and the department of defence.

IEA’s outstanding debts and record keeping deficiencies were at the centre of queries on Thursday.

The authority was represented by new chief executive Roy Collie, human resource officer Cecile Fred and accountants Nadia Bijoux and Velma Esparon.

During its audit of the IEA, the Office of the Auditor General found debtors balance as at September 2018 had amounted to R6,503,454 which had accumulated from 2016 due to non-transfer of the records to the IEA from the Ministry of Habitat, Infrastructure, Lands and Transport (MHILT) in 2015 due to a system crash.

As a result, the completeness of the debtors’ record is in doubt.

In reply to FPAC’s queries on whether IEA has an effective record keeping, Mr Collie explained that the authority currently does not have a proper system that can capture data, manage debtors and provide timely updates and flag effective dates for rent reviews and amount due.

Nonetheless, Mr Collie noted that the authority has been working to set up such a system which is expected to start running in December this year.

“Based on the reconciled database, as of today, we have an outstanding of R19.083 million. This is only from what we have been able to reconcile, there is a possibility that the figure might increase when we complete the reconciliation process,” added Mr Collie.

The IEA was followed by the department of finance, headed by secretary of state Patrick Payet.

MNA for Plaisance, Richard Labrosse, probed the delegation in regards to a sanction duty of US $16.5 million in the acquisition of all shares in Cable & Wireless by local company LGPLC and LLA Ltd.

Although the government, through the Treasury, recorded to having received US $14 million relating to the sale of the C&W shares in December 2019, the registration division confirmed that the government had yet to receive the remaining US $2.5 million.

The US $2.5 million is due to the government in sanction duty for the transfer of two properties.

“The government negotiated with the group of investors and the entity selling the shares to acquire two parcels of land that the government wanted back in its possession. So, all of the balance was paid except for the US $2.5 million,” explained Mr Payet.

The first parcel is V5326 located at Le Chantier in Victoria which was only successfully transferred after the Office of the Auditor General completed its audit report for 2019. Mr Payet offered to provide a copy of the transfer of land registration to the FPAC.

Meanwhile, the second land parcel, C3003 at Bon Espoir, Anse Boileau, is currently being surveyed because Cable & Wireless plans to retain a section of the land.

Mr Payet noted that the section of C3003 which will be transferred to the government is valued at US $0.7 million but an agreement has already been signed by all parties, guaranteeing the transfer.

The FPAC questioned the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) on outstanding debts and what efforts the SRC is undertaking to retrieve them.

“The more debts owed to us, the happier we are because it means that we can collect tax for the government. Since July 1 this year we have set up the amnesty which is one of the measures being undertaken to help reduce the interests and penalties,” said SRC commissioner general Veronique Herminie.

“Penalties and interests have amounted to around R439 million and this represents around 40% of the outstanding debts, and it is important for us to clean all these,” she added.

As for the department of defence, Colonel Micheal Rosette, chief of the defence forces, clarified that there was a misunderstanding relating to goods and services which had amounted to R107,677,941 in 2018, some of which were acquired through non-compliance to procurement procedures.

Elsie Pointe