Fiji Labour Party (FLP) leader Mahendra Chaudhry has accused the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) of bias in handling a complaint lodged by the FLP against alleged unauthorised payments to members of the Electoral Commission.
Mr Chaudhry said FICAC’s bias was very obvious when it ruled in January 2022 that the complaint about the allowances, lodged by two political parties, FLP and Unity Fiji, “were baseless and without any merit”.
Mr Chaudhry said that 13 months later, on February 2, 2023, the FEO itself had lodged a complaint to FICAC on the same issue, asking for an investigation into cash payments to the former chairman of the Electoral Commission for sitting allowances at $500 a day on occasions when the commission was not sitting.
He said the FEO had now confirmed that all members of the commission benefited from the unauthorised payments, even receiving payments for attending social functions.
“They should all be investigated,” Mr Chaudhry said.
He also recalled FICAC Commissioner Rashmi Aslam’s statement on January 28, 2022, that stated “FICAC initiated a thorough investigation and verified all relevant documents relating to the alleged payments …”, and “found that there was no evidence to support any false or fraudulent payments”.
Mr Chaudhry said FICAC had taken the trouble to impound documents relevant to the case – thus removing all FEO records on the case.
“I call on the authorities to take immediate action to restore public confidence in our law enforcement agencies,” he said.
