Mauritius: the public broadcasting group accumulates outstanding advertising debts of USD 8.5 million

(Agence Ecofin) - 300 million Mauritian rupees, this is the total sum of advertising revenue that the public broadcasting group of Mauritius is yet to recover. This represents a little over USD 8.5 million which should have been collected in the coffers of the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). The revelation was made by information website lexpress.mu which gained access to a report from the Ministry of Technologies, Communication and Innovation.

It appears that MBC never lodged any complaint with some advertising agencies which used its services, nor with some clients and partners in the same situation. The report names among others Mauritius Telecom.

The recovery of the 300 million rupees would be a real respite for MBC which is struggling under a debt of about 1 billion rupees, approximately USD 28.44 million. In addition to accumulating debts, the company lost money. It only held on thanks to the subsidy from the state. This bad management is ascribed to the ex-General Director of MBC, Dan Callikan, who remained at the helm till December 2014. The company’s payroll increased due to multiple recruitments.

Today, the government thought about a rescue plan which entails not only the reduction of the workforce, but also MBC returning to its core activity as a public information service provider. This presupposes the end of “the government propaganda”. The radio and television of the group must “be at the service of the citizens”.

This mission will be given to the next General Director after the dismissal of the previous one who only lasted 8 months in function.