For a week now, employees of the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) have been talking about it. Mutual Aid is investigating employees who filed documents with falsified information allegedly issued by the national station’s human resources office to borrow from this government institution. The anti-corruption commission (ICAC) is also in the presence of a letter of denunciation on this case in which the whistleblowers allege that the forgery would have been committed at the level of the human resources office. The ICAC, it is said, has already opened an investigation.
Moreover, the management of the MBC confirms to us that Mutual Aid has initiated an investigation and that a disciplinary committee has been set up at the management of the station to listen to two employees. “All legal procedures were followed to have a disciplinary committee take charge of the matter and launch an internal investigation. We confirm that two employees forged signatures on a document to obtain a loan, ”says Rama Armoogum, head of the Administration and corporate department of MBC, who came back to us following an email sent to the office of the general manager.
This case came to light shortly before Acting Director of Human Resources Luxmi Samboo emailed MBC employees last Monday to let them know of her departure from national television. Whistleblowers say his move is linked to the Mutual Aid loan and that MBC chief executive Anooj Ramsurrun advised him to step down, but MBC management denies it. “She applied to retire for health reasons,” insists Rama Armoogum. His boss, Anooj Ramsurrun, goes even further. “I didn’t force her to quit. On the contrary, I wanted to keep her in our service, but she did not want to. In fact, the board of directors of the MBC is aware of his approach. It is true that her signature and that of another person, were forged, but it is for health reasons that she leaves “, insists the director general of the MBC.
We contacted Luxmi Samboo by phone. A man, who responded, made it clear to us that she has not resigned and that there is no article to write about her departure arguing that it is in the private domain. We also made it clear to him that we learned that there had been some documents from the Human Resources Department that had been tampered with and that Mutual Aid was investigating, that it was necessary to speak to him. The man then begged us to stop calling him insisting that there is no reason to mention his departure in the press.
Meanwhile, another letter landed at the ICAC office. In it, the whistleblower claims that MBC executives, including Anooj Ramsurrun, use the national station car to transport their relatives. “According to the Pay Research Bureau, the Managing Director of MBC can use his own car for work duties for a stipend or use an MBC vehicle for work and personal reasons, but an allowance will be deducted from his salary. It always has been. The general manager chose to take a KIA belonging to the MBC ”, maintains Rama Armoogum. In addition, we are told that the letters of denunciation intended for the ICAC were also sent to the Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth.