Madam Speaker, I am sure that the House will be stunned to note that the last approved audited accounts of the National Transport Corporation relate to

55 the financial year ending 31 December 2015. However, I am informed by the NTC that the audited accounts for the financial year 2016/2017 were received on 29 October 2024; that same will be considered by the Board for approval. What is more disturbing, Madam Speaker, is that accounts in respect of financial years 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 were approved by the then NTC Board on 11 September 2024 and thereafter sent to the National Audit Office for audit purposes on 16 September 2024. One would wonder about the compulsion of having the above accounts, which have been pending for several years, to be approved some three weeks before the issue of writ for the last general elections. I leave it to the hon. Members to draw their own conclusion. As regards financial statements for the financial year 2020/2021, same are expected to be completed by the end of December 2024. To add insult to injury, Madam Speaker, I am informed that even the management accounts for years 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 are not available and are now being prepared. Same are expected to be completed by the end of February 2025, seemingly. Madam Speaker, it is utterly inconceivable for a government-owned entity, generating billions of rupees, to have such a backlog of outstanding accounts. This situation is totally unacceptable, as in the absence of final accounts, it might be difficult to gauge the true financial position of the corporation which has been the recipient of billions of rupees of subsidies over the past few years. In fact, the Director of Audit raised serious concerns about the non-finalisation of the annual reports of the NTC in his previous management letters. Madam Speaker, the House will surely concur that we cannot condone the inordinate delay in finalising the accounts of the corporation, the more so as the latter has to comply with the provisions relating to the Statutory Bodies (Accounts and Audit) Act relating to the finalisation of annual reports and financial statements within the applicable statutory delay. In fact, even before the question was addressed to me, I had instructed my ministry to urge the NTC to finalise the pending accounts just like I did for the Metro Express Ltd, and that same has to be audited as a matter of priority. Madam Speaker, this situation cannot be allowed to recur, and there is a need for persons who had been at the helm of organisations for several years to be made accountable for the current state of affairs. It would appear that dereliction of duty would be way too mild to explain the tardy and non-finalisation of the accounts. Against this backdrop, the newly

56 reconstituted Board of the NTC took the bold decision on 14 December 2024 to terminate the appointment of the General Manager, and this, I need to stress, is in accordance with the terms and conditions of his contract. An Officer-in-Charge, Dr. Ramakrishna Permal Naidoo, has been appointed pending the recruitment of a new General Manager who will be designated following an open advertisement process. Madam Speaker, as regards the subsidy part of the question, in order not to be lengthy in my reply, I am tabling the total amount of subsidy granted by Government to the NTC from January 2020 to June 2024 and as communicated to me by the NTC. Madam Speaker, with regard to part (b) of the question, the NTC owns a fleet of 499 buses with an overall average age of 11 years, and the fleet comprises various makes and models, including Ashok Leyland, Tata, Yutong and Nissan. With a view to improving the services, the NTC is in the process of replacing its ageing buses with the procurement of 100 new diesel buses while discussions are ongoing for the sourcing of 200 additional buses. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Hon. Third Member for Port Louis South! I am sorry, hon. Dr. Aumeer. He tried to catch my eye.

Madam Speaker, please. May I ask the hon. Minister if he is aware of an NTC bus that caught fire in my constituency on Sunday, and what will his ministry do to ensure that this type of incident does not occur again?

Thank you. I thought that the hon. Member would ask this question because Chemin Grenier, where the incident occurred, is in his constituency and that of the former Minister of Land Transport, Mr Alan Ganoo. Madam Speaker, Members of the House – at least those who were here during the 2019-2024 session – would recall that the state of the NTC buses was the subject of a Parliamentary Question on 7 November 2023, namely, PQ B/1405, wherein I queried the then minister on the maintenance aspects. Unfortunately, I was rudely denied from fulfilling my parliamentary duties by the then Speaker and could not put additional questions as regards the servicing of Yutong buses, the make of the bus that caught fire in your constituency and was completely burnt.

57 The Officer-in-Charge of the NTC reported that a semi-low floor bus of make Yutong with immatriculation number 2674 AP 16 caught fire on 15 December 2024, the next day that the General Manager was asked to leave by the Board, around 12:30 hours, at Chemin Grenier. According to information provided to me by the NTC, the driver observed thick smoke emanating from the rear of the bus. He immediately stopped the bus, and passengers were evacuated. So, fortunately, there were no casualties. The driver could not, however, extinguish the fire with the onboard fire extinguisher, leading to the fire spreading to other parts of the bus. Despite the efforts put in by the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Services, the bus was completely burnt. Fortunately, no passengers were injured, like I said, though the driver sustained minor burns while attempting to put out the fire. The bus was towed to the Forest Side depot of the NTC. In the meantime, a preliminary report has been submitted to my ministry on the matter. However, with a view to having an independent inquiry on this issue, my ministry has requested the mechanical engineering division of the Ministry of National Infrastructure to carry out a detailed investigation on the causes and circumstances of the fire outbreak. I rely on my colleague, the Minister of National Infrastructure, and on his officers to promptly look into the matter. The maintenance strategy of the NTC buses will have to be redressed in light of the findings of the above independent investigation, and we cannot and will not allow the lives of our fellow citizens to be put at risk. Thank you.

Luckily I allowed the question. Yes, now hon. Dr. Aumeer! MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS – GENERAL WORKERS – RECRUITMENT EXERCISES