It’s not often that we agree with Showkutally Soodhun. But his decision to scrap the State Trading Corporation’s laughably inept little side-business, the STCCL, has been rightly feted as a step in the right direction. Yet the STCCL is not the only millstone around our collective neck. Taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for scores of commissions and agencies that simply aren’t up to the tasks they’ve been set. Here are a few that have long outstayed their welcome or, more aptly, our largesse.

The Beach Authority (BA) and the Tourism Authority (TA): what is it exactly that these two “entities” do? Let’s start with what we know. The former doles out highly dubious permits for deckchairs (thereby privatizing public beaches), while the latter’s employees zip around in tiny green lorries trying their best to look active. So basically, they cost the taxpayers money without actually doing much to justify the expenditure. If anything, the two “authorities” and, in particular, the BA use our hardearned cash to make our lives a little less pleasant. That’s why you probably won’t see too many tears being spilt over their much deserved demise. Go on Nando, make our day!

Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA): it’s no secret that organizations with names beginning in “independent” are about as independent as countries with “democratic” in their names are democratic. Yet even factoring in its fawning subservience to the government of the day does not explain how staggeringly ineffective the IBA is. It purports to be “at the centre of the now emerging landscape wherein private, commercial and community broadcasters will operate side by side.” It seems to have formulated this description using the same logic that led Ptolemy to conclude that the Earth was at the centre of the universe. At least Ptolemy’s place in History is secure. The same probably can’t be said of the IBA.

Financial Services Commission (FSC): if anything, the recent subprime crisis and the subsequent convulsions it sent across the world showed us how dangerous a mix inadequate regulation and increasingly complex financial products can be. This lesson seems to have been completely lost on the FSC, which has been either unable or unwilling to stamp its authority on the rough and tumble world of financial markets. Its unfortunate habit of always sweeping its investigations under the carpet is additional proof of its raging obsolescence. This is not to say that we don’t need a financial watchdog. We just don’t need one that is toothless, blind and crippled.

Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC): not so much a white elephant as a stampeding herd of albino pachyderms, the ICAC has absorbed hundreds of millions of rupees since its creation in 2002 without once succeeding in getting the sort of high-profi le conviction needed to send a strong message to those who have turned corruption into an art form. Admittedly, it has obtained 11 convictions since June 2006 but nabbing cops for accepting Rs200 baksheeshes doesn’t exactly represent a convincing return on such a massive investment. In its defence though, the ICAC seems to have come to terms with its relative impotence. Click on “Career opportunities” on the commission’s website and you get “file not found”.