US Chargé d’Affaires meets with Minister Hassan
September 28, 2021
The Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade, is appealing for technical assistance from the US Embassy, principally in the fields of corruption investigations and revenue collection.
Minister Naadir Hassan, made the appeal during a courtesy call by the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Mauritius, Ms. Judes DeBaere, on Tuesday 28th September 2021, at Liberty House.
“One of my priority as Minister of Finance is to ensure taxpayers money are spent where it is necessary, and eliminating corruption in the public service is a necessity. But we lack the specific skills set to investigate, build a solid case and get a successful prosecution.”
For this reason, Minister Hassan has requested assistance from the US.
“We need more specialize technical assistance in this field, because people need to know that this government will not tolerate corruption.”
Minister Hassan has also appealed to the US government for technical support for the Seychelles Revenue Commission and the Customs Division.
“In 2022, my ministry wants to focus on plugging revenue leakages at both entities and in order to achieve this priority target, we will need to build capacity of the staff, so once again we would appreciate if the US government can provide assistance in this field also.”
Ms. DeBaere has assured Minister Hassan, that the ‘US have experts who can assist Seychelles’ in its fight against corruption and improving revenue collection.
The current transformation of the financial sector was also on the agenda. Minister Hassan spoke in detail about the government’s ongoing efforts to adhere to international standards, in order to remove Seychelles on the EU blacklist.
“This year, we have amended a lot of laws to ensure compliance. This shows that the commitment is there, and all we need is the support to achieve this objective and remain compliance.”
Other areas of discussions during the meeting were; diversification of the economy, the steady recovery of the tourism sector, the economic and public sector reforms and maintaining fiscal discipline in the public sector.
Minister Hassan’s delegation included the CEO of the Public Enterprise Monitoring Commission, Mr. George Tirant, and Ms. Seylina Verghese, Director General in the Tax & Financial Sector Policy Division, in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade.