A UNITED Nations Development Programme (UNDP) employee who is believed to have recorded the video of Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama allegedly manhandling Opposition MP Pio Tikoduadua outside Parliament on August 9 while working for the Fiji Parliament, had not been given any Parliament induction.
This has been revealed by the acting secretary-general to Parliament, Viniana Namosimalua, in an interview with this newspaper.
Mrs Namosimalua said the staff member was roped in from the UNDP to assist the Parliament secretariat in video editing.
“He was on attachment with us under the Fiji Parliament support project. He was here to assist us in a particular area in which we were lacking in, video editor. He was to come and do video editing for us,” Mrs Namosimalua said.
She said the employee was requested to return to UNDP after the video was leaked.
“He happened to be on the steps when that incident happened and he recorded it.
“This person had not been given any kind of Parliament induction for him to understand the independence and neutrality of the institution.
“He just came, thrown into there and do your job. That is what he did on that day.”
She claimed to have been reliably informed by another staff member that he had recorded the video using the Parliament camera.
“I gave instructions to him, go and get the footage, bring it to me, the official one and there should be no other copy of the footage.”
Mrs Namosimalua said the footage they had was the same as the one that had gone viral on social media.
“So I felt, OK, something has happened, so I had to release him from his attachment with us, to go back to UNDP because there has been a breach of our code of conduct in policy, together with my specific instruction that no other copy to be put out.”
Mrs Namosimalua said according to information received, the official had not lost his job at the UNDP.
“To the best of my knowledge, I know the person who recorded the footage has not lost his job.”
Meanwhile, former Parliament secretariat staff member Iliesa Raiduduva, 35, who is alleged to have leaked the video, was allegedly forced to resign.
The UNDP wished not to comment on the issue after questions were sent to them via electronic mail on September 11.
