As we told you last week, the Commission of inquiry into the Sale of Government Assets has concluded its work and submitted it to the Prime Minister.
Well, Cabinet cleared it for release today and while there are no dramatic smoking guns - the commission did find significant irregularities - mainly with the cavalier approach to disposing of government assets. And, that, the commissioners found was due to apparent ignorance of and disinterest in the regulations surrounding the disposal of such assets. The commission makes a sweeping conclusion, quote, "The ignorance of applicable regulations at the very top of the Government's organizational structure easily led to the conclusion that the executions of sales of government assets during the relevant period were all in breach of applicable regulations and well-known tendering procedures." End quote.
To that they add, quote,"The overall result was that the Ministry of Finance routinely sold motor vehicles to favoured persons at less than market value and at losses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. There was simply no regard for any lawful process to secure the best value for assets sold or to identify purchasers in any open or transparent way." End quote.
So, will anyone be held accountable for these lapses? Well, the commission recommends two things. One, that it be determined if Hugo Patt and Michael Peyrefitte are still qualified to sit in the National Assembly after they both engaged in contracts to purchase government assets disclosed to the Commission.
Second, that, quote "any connection between, on the one hand, the sale of the motor vehicle to Hugo Patt and, on the other hand, the land sales to Zhourong Li be further investigated with a view to prosecution..."
Li is the one who financed the purchase of Patt's former government pickup - which ended up in the hands of third and fourth parties. Li - it must be noted - had 29 parcels of land transferred to him in 2020 while Patt was Minister of Natural Resources.
