Seychelles Called to Combat!

James ( in Irish Jack, oh, remember the Irish)  Michel has resurfaced after a prolong absence from the Public eye since resigning as President of The Republic of Seychelles, and handing over to Mr. Danny Faure. Faure has been a step ahead all the time, and has done many good moves, to Jacks discontent.

Jack surfaced at the June 3 rd Le Pep party congress to establish order in his party after Faure shunned his request that he stand as President of the Party. Jack therefore had to take the helm as President Honorary ( to shield him from political irrelevance), place numerous cabinet members of Danny Faure Administration in his Central Committee, that was giving orders, but the machinery was not following through.

Times are changing, but not everyone is keeping up with the change, they would rather be content in the historical cages of the past. Jack, time waits for no one, you cannot scare time into submission.

Jack Has Big Problems

It is evident Jack has big problems. Leader of The Opposition is investigating the SCR. 150 Million building L'Espace built for Jacks Foundation, JJ Spirit, which according to the mistress of all ceremonies, is at the forefront of fighting drug addiction in Seychelles. Really? I did not know that.

Oh Question Time!

Allow me to ask any MNA to ask the following question: " what has JJ Spirit done to fight drug addiction in Seychelles?" "How much of its budget is used on drug addiction ?" When will JJ spirit be audited? " what office space at L ' ESPACE is dedicated to fighting drug addiction and rehabilitation in Seychelles?

The list of problems goes on and on. How much was Desroches island leased for? How much was Ile Platte dumped for? Grand Police? Was it market value? I doubt it. The Arab investors we talk to tell us under Jack, they pay less then market value, and will not budge on any venture. Jack has spoil them, now no one can deal with them.

Vincent Meriton President of Party"

Vincent Meriton has been elected President of the Party. The young energetic Meriton, is fast on a Samsung, has been brought up through the ranks. He has a clean slate, without the baggage of Jack. In the hotel business, people regularly turn up with their baggage, and they want you to carry it for them. My advise to President of Le Pep, politely advise Jack he must carry  his own baggage, because when he had the chance to unload June 5 th and be a hero not to killers, but all of Seychelles, Jack declined a golden political opportunity, chose to carry June 5th on his shoulders, all by himself.

This is why everyone says Jack is in a JAM, regardless of the stage show.

Jack Is Gone Danny Is President No. 1

Le Pep supporters called me for advise. So many Presidents now, Danny, Jack, Vincent. Who do they follow? What do they do?

For the moment, Jack has hit a Che Guevara tone, calling on his supporters to be aggressive, combative, and hold nothing back, be ready for turbulence, he snorts. Jack of course forgets Tourism is 21% and we can do 25% this year, to pay for all the vehicles he  had signed off to him from the State House ledger.

Jack forgets Savoy Hotel must pay its bills, Kempenski must pay taxes, Four Seasons needs a profit after investment, Seychellois need to eat, live, pay their way, from their own pockets, something Jack has never done himself, and will not know what it feels like to build something from his own honest sweat as inferred from the LOTO statements on L ' ESPACE.

Well, I hope the LOTO brings forward the facts, nothing but the facts, so far we have one car park, taken, not paid for. STB has vac

In the mean time Jack, Danny is still the President, not you. The country should work with him, since he says he wants peace and genuine national reconciliation, not combat, aggression, or anything else espoused with a dose of vile mixed with bile.

I heard in the hall ways some murder saying, yes, more murder, more mayhem, bring back torture, yes...................long live the revolution! Jack is Back!

See what I mean Jack? Better see a shrink, would you not say?

With such erratic banter in the halls of ICC, President Danny Faure, best start dealing with the Che Guevera extremists left in the Army, the Cabinet, and Districts. You never know what these people can do after a few drinks at the "harbor bar".

Sesel Pou Seselwa!

May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!

The Time Is Now To Privatize PUC Praslin!

This week the National Assembly dragged PUC Praslin through hot coals over the noise level and emissions of its generators. The PL and LDS were all over PUC on these issues that affect residents in the proximate area where the loud smoke bulging generators are run. But the National Assembly missed the most important point: PUC Praslin has failed!

Line Diversion Request

Last week, a official of PUC turned up after 15 years to inspect a request for line diversion, accompanied with other request 25 years old. It is a joke. The visit came only after the matter was referred to legal counsel for prosecution. PUC has no vision. They only operate on a reactionary basis, and treat consumers as problems not as opportunities. I trust Minister Dogley is reading this:" consumers are not problems".

Failing Service

The service on Praslin is horrendous, if there exist a worse word, it is that. Electricity cuts are common tough out the night, while tourists are eating in restaurants. As the electricity cuts, a mad house ensues, Seychelles takes on the image of a banana operation, caused by PUC failures.

Food in freezers rot, compressors break, equipment from flat screens, fridges, freezers break from power surges not expected in the ordinary course of business. The Amitie dump site is full of electronic and kitchen equipment from restaurants and hotels. In the face of such hazardous loss, PUC refuses to pay for the loss, deny having caused it, yet electricity voltage flows like high tide and low tide.

New Cars, New Trucks Less Work

It was interesting to see Mr. Morin worm over the generator and proposals for a new one, as he fed Minister Dogley with information to field questions before a teething National Assembly. PUC does not have money to replace the generator causing all the noise, smoke, vibrations, but it has money to replace and add to its fleet of vehicles.

Virtually every truck and car of PUC is new. It shows you where managements priority is. Instead of maintaining their vehicles, which will teach them how to maintain their generators, they sell the vehicles to their own staff, buy new ones and hence, do not have to change tires, gaskets, or break pads.

Privatize PUC

Electricity production will never work on Praslin with management based on Mahe. It's like have the casings of a engine on one island, the pistons of the same engine on another island. The situation has gotten so bad that even when there is a break down, if after 3:15 pm, they stop taking the phone, you call Mahe, they give you a number manned by a security guard at the gate, where the breaking dying generator is located.

Government must consider seriously  a privatize scheme for PUC, before any more money is wasted. Plug the leak!

Give the head aches to the private sector, organize a back up generator for the hospital, connect it, don't leave it in the rain to rust, set a acceptable rates scheme, commit 12-15 megawatts to take into consideration growth, raise La Digues rates since they have a free ride, have no power cuts, since their lines are all underground, take that money, compensate these families on Praslin affected monthly, place all lines underground, so the fruit bats do not look smarter then PUC management.

So there you go, problems highlighted, solution proposed, costing Government of Seychelles nothing, everyone paying their fair share, those hurt, compensated reasonably.

If you have other national crisis that need a plausible solution, do advise.

If you want to know the name of the company that can do this operation, hint, it is not Vijay, he may swipe the diesel judging from the last hotel contract that went down the dumps.

Sesel Pou Seselwa!

May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!

Ministry of Lands Pushes UCPS To Near Shutdown!

UCPS boss Joseph Albert has alerted all press, that UCPS is facing shut down of its impressive state of the art quarry material, block production site that has delivered construction material, to build Seychelles to what it is today, since 1970.

Lest We Forget

Albert took over UCPS in an era wherein rocks were broke by hand, collected by Seychellois men and women with gunny sacks and bamboo hampers, stacked manually, loaded manually. This is how building works started. After substantial investments and a strategy of modernization in place, targeted to deal with Seychelles tough granite boulders, convert them to dust, stones, blocks, fully automated, UCPS evolved from being a slave like operation, to a full fledged state of art quarry and construction materials service provider. A Seychellois saw a problem, he also saw the opportunities, concluded, " we can do it" and with his team, they did.

Get The Job Done

When SBC showed a Chinese contractor digging with an old machine on the South East island for quarry product, the Seychellois public lost patience with the Ministry of Lands.  This Mickey Mouse operation looked like a office joke. One only ask, what did the Chinese pay under the table for this concession, while UCPS ran out of rocks?  It just does not add up.

Drop Prices
UCPS responded to Ministry of Lands confirming it will drop prices, in spite of an increase in cost to quarry rocks from red dirt. The gesture is applaudable, but likely makes no business sense. Seychelles leaders, need to get back to some reality checks. 

No Quarry No Building 

Reality is upon us. No quarry, no building. UCPS has ask for alternate site for Fifteen years, at Au cap. In reply, Minister of Lands, Mr. Charles Bastienne says environment has yet to express a position on the matter. Fifteen years is a long time to file a report. It exposes also what generally, most Seychellois are coming to understand, the selective prosecution of individuals and companies, using the environmental card as a raison etre to bar projects and development. This strategy is a defeatist strategy, because in the end, we destroy Seychellois " can do initiative", when government should be doing all it can, to push Seychellois to " do everything , they can do".

The Goose and The Gander

The saying goes like this: " what is good for the goose, is good for the gander". This is a famous English saying, made popular in Seychelles, by Mrs. Sarah Rene.

While government has traditionally play the environment card on Seychellois maliciously, it has ignored the environment card when foreigners invested in Seychelles. Case in fact, Savoy Hotel, Raffles oil spill ongoing into a marine park, Lemuria Hotel, where they buried hundreds of Takamaka trees under neath the golf course, Eden Island where dredging of the coast and destruction of that Eco system was justified. The list is really endless. But the point made. The Goose had its time on us.

Today, the Gander ( Seychellois public) has protested, petitioned the death of the Cap Ternay Emirates Hotel Development. Now, most recently, a petition to stop the mega hotel,Marina development on Grand Police was submitted to State House. The Gander is biting back. 

Get Sensible and Serious

Seychelles must get sensible and realistic about the environment. Environmental extremism is a dangerous political tool. It is poison to economic growth, acid to investor confidence, and an accelerator to capital flight, inflation, devaluation, and divestment. It numbs Foreign direct investment ( FDI), freezes salaries, forces the population out of their cars, back into buses and on to bicycles to get to work.

Today, let us send a serious message to government: Seychellois want to live well. We want development., because that guarantees we will live well, if we work hard and fairly. We want Seychellois to be given Priority  AND encouraged Actively, to develop in their own country, for in China, we will all have to start by collecting tea leaves. 

I trust the point is clear.

Sesel Pou Seselwa!

May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!

Vijay Faces SCR. 300 Million Judgment on Savoy Hotel!

VIJAY Construction Limited has lost a monumental arbitration case facing Plaintiff Eastern European Proprietary Limited (EEL) the local investment arm of Savoy Hotel and Gupta Group of companies that include holdings in banking, retail, oil, gas. It is understood, Gupta may have links to the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin, but this could not be confirmed at the time of Judgment .

SIX CONTRACTS ONE PROJECT TRICK - TRAP

The Arbitration procedure fell under terms and conditions of the numerous contracts VIJAY awards to build and complete SAVOY Hotel, Beau Vallon, Seychelles, in 2012.

Under the numerous contracts, VIJAY agreed to submit to the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, France for arbitration and final resolution for any disputes that may arise in the course of the numerous construction contracts, which represented different phases of construction of Savoy Hotel, Beau Vallon,Mahe, Seychelles. There were SIX contracts in all.

VIJAY BLASTED IN PARIS

Arbitration Judgment was entered against VIJAY in the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, France for the breach of contract, and alleged persistence to commit bribery in the construction process. See below:

46 of Supreme a court Judgment:- " Vijay engages in bribery, clause 15.2(f) provided that if VIJAY engages in bribery,EEL may terminate contract," For Cause".

The key witness to the case was a Mr. Egorov of Russian citizenship, employed by EEL, to oversea the project implementation at Beau Vallon.

Once terminated by EEL, he went back to Russia. In Moscow he was called by Gupta group and ask why did he engage in bribery with VIJAY, he denied this.

TOO CLOSE FOR PROFESSIONAL COMFORT

Egorov, the Supreme Court  judgment written by Justice Robinson , infers, spent time at VIJAY s Cerf Island Five star hotel, and at one point, rented a house at La Misere, not far from Vijays private residence, to stay close to each other.

VIJAY REFUSES TO PAY

In court Vijay Patel said referring to the decision : " it is a decision of Vijay to not pay the award which Vijay considers ' a false award and now we ( Vijay) are restricted from telling the truth. So this is manipulation". However, at each stage of the Paris Arbitration, Vijay had the opportunity to submit briefs and reply to each accusation against the class "A" construction company.

CONTEMPT OF COURT

Perhaps VIJAY does not know, refusing to pay a judgment is " Contempt of Court" actionable by a motion to imprison the Defendant..........until such time....he changes his mind. When faced with the judgement, VIJAY should had also abstained from transferring any funds from the company account into any overseas accounts.

IMPROPER LEGAL DEFENSE

Vijay Claim of lack of Due Process, lack of Standing of the Supreme Court were Don Quiotte issues that had no place in the case.

It is quintessential red herring lawyering to make such a claim under a construction contract arbitration dispute.

SCR. 300 MILLION JUDGEMENT

As the gable dropped, Justice Robinson enforced the Arbitration award, with interest tacked at 8% going back to the date of the breach granted leave to EEL to register its award in Seychelles, judgment was entered, exceeding SCR. 300 Million.

WILL SEYCHELLES REVOKE VIJAY LICENSE OR ALLOW CLASS C

the question the Public want to know is given this judgment,will government of Seychelles revoke VIJAY license for construction, or allow it to operate under a class C Construction or be generous, allow Vijay to operate under a class B license.

What is clear, is VIJAY should not be submitting any tenders for any projects, be it private or public, until the Attorney General studies the prospect of bribery and fraud in this case and others.

Perhaps now, VIJAY can do the gracious thing, remove his name on all the National Heritage site signs Raffles paid for, he took credit for with his name embossed in cement. That was cultural fraud!

Sesel Pou Seselwa!

May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!