The FIU-NDEA case continues: The missing contracts |07 September 2017

The third and final hearing session conducted by the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly yesterday featured Lise Bastienne who was questioned in her capacity as the former secretary general in the Office of the President.

Mrs Bastienne has served 12 years as a public servant and was recruited as the secretary general in 2013, a post she held until the end of President James Michel’s tenure.

Lise Bastienne being questioned by the FPAC

Her presence in Room 3 of the National Assembly at Ile du Port yesterday was to provide the FPAC with clarification on her connection with the contract State House signed in 2014 with two offshore companies registered with the Seychelles Financial Services Authority -- Tech Company Ltd and Calendula Ltd -- as well as with another company based in Mauritius called Solas Beo Inc.

In fact Mrs Bastienne was the person who signed the agreement between the two parties in her role as the secretary general and under the direction of President Michel.

The contract allegedly agreed that the companies will help set up the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA) in addition to providing their expertise to these agencies.

Wavel Ramkalawan, the chairperson of the FPAC, firstly handed over a copy of the contract to Mrs Bastienne for her to verify if it was the exact contract she had signed - it was indeed the same. Since the document is classified the copy had been given for Mr Ramkalawan and Charles Decommarmond’s perusal only, as per President Danny Faure’s discretion.

“We had hoped that her contribution would bring forth conclusive results. But, alas, some of Mrs Bastienne’s responses only brought forth the necessity for further investigations,” said Mr Ramkalawan, who added that “there were pieces missing to the jigsaw puzzle”.

She revealed that according to the enquiries she made right before signing the contract, she was told that there were two prior contracts that were drawn up and signed between the same companies and State House. Therefore the contract she signed, she was told, was the third renewed contract.

Mrs Bastienne said it was the former directors of FIU and NDEA, Declan Barber and Niall Scully respectively, who mentioned the existence of these previous documents.

She also asserted to never having seen these documents nor does she know of their current location.

“I assume the former President handed over everything to President Faure,” Mrs Bastienne added.

In reference to an amendment in February 2010 which removed the President’s power in relation to the administration of FIU, Hon. Ahmed Afif queried as to why the President’s Office took it upon itself to sign a contract on behalf of an agency which has the mandate to sign its own contracts.

Here Mrs Bastienne replied that FIU was being overseen by three governmental bodies, namely the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS), the Auditor General’s office and the Office of the President that dealt specifically with national security and intelligence; and it is for the latter reason that State House signed the agreement.

When it came to the process of payment Mrs Bastienne was unable to divulge any information. That, she said, was beyond her purview; payments to these companies had been under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance.

Another revelation was the existence of a contingency account in the CBS which had three signatories: the Ministry of Finance, the director of FIU and Mrs Bastienne herself as the secretary general. 

Funds in this contingency were meant to finance urgent requests from the military and other intelligence units and this account had been funded by the money seized by FIU.

Mrs Bastienne concluded that she accepts that some mistakes were made by the President’s Office. For instance the office could have sent standard memos to concerned ministries and agencies to make them aware of some aspects of the contracts.

Although “as an adult and public servant” she took on responsibility for what had occurred, she disagreed with the suggestion of having possibly put the country in grave danger by signing a contract she did not know much about.

“The question we have to ask ourselves now is where are those two previous contracts? If State House doesn’t have it, who does? It is because of these questions that the FPAC will have to call upon the former President James Michel to clarify all of these issues,” Mr Ramkalawan told members of the press.

This does not mean that President Michel will face any criminal charges as the hearing sessions are only simple dialogues and, furthermore, the president is immune to criminal charges under article 59 of the constitution which states that proceedings against a President can only be brought forward three years after the person has left office.