FMP Demands Select Committee Oversight of New Crime Agency

A parliamentary committee, its terms of reference, and the powers a new law enforcement agency would carry: these are the institutional questions at the centre of the FMP’s response to the government’s legislative agenda, laid out at a press conference.

The party welcomed the decision to defer the nine bills announced by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam at last Tuesday’s sitting, among them the National Crime Agency Bill and a constitutional amendment. That breathing space, Paul Bérenger argued, should be used to send the NCA project to a Select Committee rather than rush it onto the order paper. Only one of the announced texts is expected to proceed for now. The Criminal Justice (Offenders Assisting Investigations and Prosecution) Bill, slated for a second reading, does not draw FMP opposition.

On the NCA itself, Bérenger was categorical. There is broad national agreement that the Financial Crimes Commission is inadequate and must be replaced, he said, but the successor legislation must not be worse than what it replaces. In its current form, he warned, the NCA is dangerous for the country. The party favours instead a National Police Service Act adapted to Mauritian realities, with an agency designed around the country’s needs. He noted that the Police Act already defines the commissioner of police’s responsibilities and that the Constitution frames that office as well. Those guarantees should be consolidated, not weakened by an agency whose powers are insufficiently defined.

The party’s parliamentary leader, Chetan Baboolall, raised concerns about the authority the future agency’s director general would hold and about the provisions governing phone tapping. He recalled that jurists gathered at a Bar Association meeting had contested the project and called for its adoption to be frozen. For the FMP, effective investigations cannot come at the cost of individual liberties and institutional safeguards. Each provision’s consequences must be examined, including with reference to developments in Great Britain. Bérenger summarised his apprehension bluntly: the proposal amounts, in his words, to legalising Missié Loustass and the Striking Team. The deferral, he added, must serve to rebuild the project on solid foundations without indefinitely delaying the FCC’s replacement.

Meanwhile, a second governance dispute concerns a different Select Committee, the one proposed on children in conflict with the law. On 14 October, the Cabinet proposed lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12. That directive appears among the committee’s terms of reference, and Bérenger demanded its removal. The three other points deserve scrutiny, he said, but the committee’s work must not be used to advance indirectly a measure the FMP opposes. He suggested the government majority might be tempted to impose that orientation despite reservations expressed across the country.

The party’s political bureau will decide on Monday whether to participate, and its position will be conveyed in Parliament on Tuesday through the opposition leader. The committee’s composition, its functioning, its chair and the number of opposition members remain to be settled. Bérenger cautioned that opposition presence does not guarantee balanced debate if it remains largely outnumbered. He also insisted that the realities of Rodrigues and Agalega be taken into account, with Rodrigues elected representatives involved in the reflection. As to the government’s underlying intent, he voiced doubt, describing the committee as possibly a diversion, though he will await the motion before concluding.

Accountability questions ran through the rest of the agenda. More than a month after the National Agency for Drug Control report was handed to the Prime Minister, it has still not been made public. Ramgoolam himself chairs the commission examining it, which must decide on follow-up before the dossier reaches Parliament. Bérenger argued the procedure must not delay action against drugs further and called for immediate publication. On cannabis legalisation, the party acknowledged internal differences but wants a documented debate first, drawing on Uruguay, which legalised in 2013 and has just evaluated its experience, and South Africa, where the Constitutional Court decriminalised in 2018 before the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act of 2024. THC concentrations, ranging from 5 to 50 percent depending on variety, and the 15 percent cap applied in Uruguay’s regulated market, form part of that analysis.

On the Rs 10,000 premium paid to police officers and firefighters who worked during the recent crisis, Rama Valayden welcomed the gesture but pressed for a review of the risk allowance, arguing that a one-off payment is no substitute for protecting officers’ families. Neelkanth Dulloo called for an independent gaming police force to address illegal betting, citing revenue losses for the state and the responsibilities of the Gambling Regulatory Authority and the police. On the curfew imposed during the recent unrest, he noted a Government Notice had been published but argued that proportionality must accompany the rule of law. Whether the deferred bills return to the order paper in amended form, and on whose terms, is now the question Parliament will have to answer.