INTERIM Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has been cleared of any taxation breaches and will resume office from Monday next week.
This announcement was made by interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum at a press conference at Government Buildings yesterday morning.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said a three member independent inquiry team appointed by interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama completed its investigation on Monday afternoon and handed over the report to Commodore Bainimarama late Monday afternoon.
He said the team, after studying the evidence and documents provided by the Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority, decided that Mr Chaudhry had not breached any taxation laws.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the team concluded that the tax assessment by FIRCA with respect to Mr Chaudhry between 2000 and 2006 was carried out in accordance with the Tax Act and other relevant tax laws in Fiji.
He said the committee had not identified any breaches of the Exchange Control Act by Mr Chaudhry between 2000 and 2006. "As far as the interim Government is concerned this matter has now ended. The interim Government undertook and facilitated an independent inquiry and the report is available to all," said Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
He said Commodore Bainimarama has considered the report overnight and was satisfied once again that there were no breaches.
"As the interim PM stated, the independent inquiry team's report would be made public in the interest of transparency, accountability and good governance. The interim PM could have simply given you (media) the copy of the executive summary but he has decided to make available the entire report."
The inquiry team was headed by Bruce Cowley a partner in the law firm Minter Ellison in Brisbane, Russel Postle a partner in the accounting firm of BDO Kendalls, also in Brisbane, and former deputy PM, Taufa Vakatale.