Excerpt from Report (Nov. 28, 1997) of the Auditor General of Seychelles

Delay in land acquisition reviews

2.9.28 Under "Part III - Compensation for past land acquisition" of the Constitution of the Republic of Seychelles 1993, the government can consider applications for compensations from the persons whose lands were compulsorily acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1997. A time frame of 12 months was prescribed for claimants to lodge their applications for negotiations and obtaining compensation.

2.9.29 Out of about 500 applications for compensations were filed only 72 have been finalized up to December 1996. A sum of R47.78 (about US 10 Million) has been paid as compensation and interest during 1994 to 1996 out of budget provisions of R34.59. It was also found that in some cases state land was exchanged for the lands acquired without valuation of either of the
lands and refunding/recovering the difference from the owner of the acquired land.

2.9.30 The Audit Department recommended that the Ministry should make adequate budgetary provisions for compensation payments and restrict the payments to the approved budget.

2.9.31 The Ministry replied (July 1997) that it expected that all negotiations would be completed by 31 December 1997 when it would be possible to establish the level of government's liability on account of compensation.