Le Week-end 5/11/ 2006
Dear sir,
Following the report of the "Fact Finding Committee" published in your paper last Sunday, I would like to bring the following clarifications for the edification of your readers.
As correctly mentioned in the report, I attended a brain storming session at the inception of the Cyber Village project. As is obvious by its appellation, that session aimed at thrashing out ideas to set the ball rolling with a number of important potential stake holders: grade A contractors, Ministry of Housing and Land representatives, Michael Glover, an active and respected personality of the Sporting field in Mauritius, and representatives from the Mauritius Housing Company.
These stake holders having been brought together, that meeting was my first and last involvement EVER in either Cyber Tower, Cyber Village or any of the accompanying activities that unfolded in the years that followed. While suspending my judgment on the opprobrium that the FF Committee is throwing on such Boards, companies, etc. and the persons who served on them, I have at NO time been a member of ANY of the Boards or companies that were linked directly or indirectly with the Ebene Cyber projects or with this field of activity anywhere in Mauritius. I have never set foot at the Cyber Tower or the Cyber Village before, during or after construction EVER. I have never been involved in any administrative or financial decision associated with the project apart from making sure that the CEB and WMA (where I sat as Director) got a piece of the prime land for their Headquarters at an affordable price. I have not conducted any meeting with anyone to discuss the project or its ramification since that brain storming session where one of my sins was to emit the truism that the project was to be implemented by the private sector. This is so "troubling to the commission" that it can only be inferred that the Commission, in its great wisdom, would have preferred the project to be entrusted to the DWC or the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
I had more than enough on my plate in 2001 after the debacle that the Labour party had left in its wake to indulge in the JOI or the Cyber tower projects, which were, to boost, of no interest to me. The very proof of my total absence from that field is borne out by the fact that the Fact Finding Committee could not find an iota of excuse to call me to its scrutinizing sessions. Either it is remiss in ignoring what the FFC Report mischievously paints as the architect of the "failure" of the Cyber project(s) or, as is patently obvious, it has no leg to stand on. Similarly, the methodology of the FFC is brought to light when we realize that the MD of the Cyber Tower for 4 years neither gets interviewed nor criticized for the dismal failure he is supposed to have presided over, while my involvement in a brain storming session of 60 minutes in October 2001 causes me to be pilloried for a series of projects I had absolutely no involvement in.
Your readers are now better able to decide for themselves whether the "facts" found by this Fact Finding Committee are worth the paper they are written on. The atmosphere of conspiracy, the ominous halo that accompanies every mention of my name, everything points to the fact that a fawning commission had to deliver the political package that a desperate Government paid it for. That it has distorted facts to the detriment of the truth it was supposed to bring to light is a matter that the members of the committee will have to live with. As to the innuendos associating me with a "flawed" bidding process in which I had no role whatsoever, it is a despicable abuse by cowards hiding behind the immunity from legal proceedings of such commissions. It is to be treated with the contempt that they have brought over themselves in this ultimate chance they had to make it to posterity.
Yours truly,
Jean-Mée Desveaux
Dear sir,
Following the report of the "Fact Finding Committee" published in your paper last Sunday, I would like to bring the following clarifications for the edification of your readers.
As correctly mentioned in the report, I attended a brain storming session at the inception of the Cyber Village project. As is obvious by its appellation, that session aimed at thrashing out ideas to set the ball rolling with a number of important potential stake holders: grade A contractors, Ministry of Housing and Land representatives, Michael Glover, an active and respected personality of the Sporting field in Mauritius, and representatives from the Mauritius Housing Company.
These stake holders having been brought together, that meeting was my first and last involvement EVER in either Cyber Tower, Cyber Village or any of the accompanying activities that unfolded in the years that followed. While suspending my judgment on the opprobrium that the FF Committee is throwing on such Boards, companies, etc. and the persons who served on them, I have at NO time been a member of ANY of the Boards or companies that were linked directly or indirectly with the Ebene Cyber projects or with this field of activity anywhere in Mauritius. I have never set foot at the Cyber Tower or the Cyber Village before, during or after construction EVER. I have never been involved in any administrative or financial decision associated with the project apart from making sure that the CEB and WMA (where I sat as Director) got a piece of the prime land for their Headquarters at an affordable price. I have not conducted any meeting with anyone to discuss the project or its ramification since that brain storming session where one of my sins was to emit the truism that the project was to be implemented by the private sector. This is so "troubling to the commission" that it can only be inferred that the Commission, in its great wisdom, would have preferred the project to be entrusted to the DWC or the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
I had more than enough on my plate in 2001 after the debacle that the Labour party had left in its wake to indulge in the JOI or the Cyber tower projects, which were, to boost, of no interest to me. The very proof of my total absence from that field is borne out by the fact that the Fact Finding Committee could not find an iota of excuse to call me to its scrutinizing sessions. Either it is remiss in ignoring what the FFC Report mischievously paints as the architect of the "failure" of the Cyber project(s) or, as is patently obvious, it has no leg to stand on. Similarly, the methodology of the FFC is brought to light when we realize that the MD of the Cyber Tower for 4 years neither gets interviewed nor criticized for the dismal failure he is supposed to have presided over, while my involvement in a brain storming session of 60 minutes in October 2001 causes me to be pilloried for a series of projects I had absolutely no involvement in.
Your readers are now better able to decide for themselves whether the "facts" found by this Fact Finding Committee are worth the paper they are written on. The atmosphere of conspiracy, the ominous halo that accompanies every mention of my name, everything points to the fact that a fawning commission had to deliver the political package that a desperate Government paid it for. That it has distorted facts to the detriment of the truth it was supposed to bring to light is a matter that the members of the committee will have to live with. As to the innuendos associating me with a "flawed" bidding process in which I had no role whatsoever, it is a despicable abuse by cowards hiding behind the immunity from legal proceedings of such commissions. It is to be treated with the contempt that they have brought over themselves in this ultimate chance they had to make it to posterity.
Yours truly,
Jean-Mée Desveaux
No comments:
Post a Comment