The SICOM Tower, the Gooljaury building, continues to be controversial.
On May 20, 2015, the Jugnauth 1st government decided to rent the SICOM building with an area of 161,036 square feet for the sum of RS.34.00 square feet per month for a period of 10 years.
A first question is necessary. How can a government elected for 5 years commit ministries for a period of 10 years?
Let’s count it up. At Rs.34.00 per month, the monthly rent comes to Rs.5,475,224.00, which would be equivalent to Rs.65,702,685.00 per year and Rs.657,026,880.00 for 10 years.
And how much did the building cost?
The Minister of Finance declared during the 2015/2016 budget speech that SME bank and the One Stop Shop for SMEs would be housed on the first 2 floors of the SICOM Tower. But in July 2015, the Minister changed his mind and decided to occupy the first 7 floors of the SICOM Tower. This led to the demolition of the work already carried out. The bill will be steep: Rs.9,732,174.00!!! SME Bank was relocated to Port Louis.
The development work on floors 1 – 7 amounted to Rs.29 million.
The work on the seventh floor, the Minister’s office, amounts to Rs.13,678,025.00.
For the period April 2015 to December 2016, the rent amounted to Rs.74,070,158.00 including RS.32.9 million for unused offices!!!!!
A.J.
