Port-Louis - Neotown: Losses of Rs1.

2
billion according to Paul Bérenger

At a press conference held at Le Labourdoinnais Hotel on Wednesday, the Opposition

Leader with documents in one hand offered his analysis of the Neotown affair. For him,
the State has lost Rs 1.2 billion in a scandalous lease for the benefit of Patil Engineering.
In 2008, Siddick Chady was President of the Mauritius Ports Authority (MPA) when the
MPA issued a letter of reservation on behalf of Patil Engineering, an Indian company.
On 29 February of the same year, Xavier-Luc Duval, the then minister responsible for the
Port, brought the dossier before the Cabinet for approval. The dossier was approved by
the Cabinet.
Quoting from a confidential document, Paul Bérenger said that the Council of Ministers
“invited the Minister of Housing and Land to do the necessary for land to be allocated
immediately so that the work could begin as early as possible”. From then on, “it’s the
Prime Minister’s Office which has taken care of the dossier until now”.
There was no tendering process. Paul Bérenger said that an invitation for international
tenders would have allowed the Government to lease the land – 58.3 acres – to the
highest bidder and would have enabled Mauritian companies to work in partnership with
property developers of international repute and develop projects on this land area.
The “real killer” of the deal lies, however, in the clauses of the lease. Referring to a
written answer given in the National Assembly on 12 April, Paul Bérenger pointed out
that the Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Housing and Land valued the site
where Neotown would be built for a sum of Rs 3.5 billion in its current state.
“This is the estimated value without road access, water, electricity, drains. Once these are
completed by the State, the value will be multiplied”, Paul Bérenger said. He said that the
site had been grossly undervalued. He also referred to the transcription of a
videoconference by Ruben Patel, the director-general of Patil Engineering with his
shareholders, who maintained that “the Mauritian land has been valued at around USD
560 million (Rs 15 billion), but that we shall only have to pay an annual rent of Rs 15
million, or 0.1% of the value of the land”. While the MPA and the Government had
proposed a 30-year lease, they have agreed to extend it to 99 years. “Absolutely
shocking”, Paul Bérenger said.

News on Sunday