Fiji Bureau of Statistics chief executive officer Kemueli Naiqama was terminated yesterday, less than 24 hours after Economy Ministry Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum warned he would be dealt with for collecting and announcing ethnic and religious data while conducting surveys, which was not in line with Government policy.
In a statement, the ministry said through the Acting Permanent Secretary, Mr Naiqama was dismissed for failing to comply with Section 5 of the Statistics Act 1961.
“In an unfortunate blow to the bureau’s credibility, Mr Naiqama endorsed the publication of unverifiable information in the Housing Income and Expenditure Survey 2019-2020 relating to ethnicity and religion – data that was revealed to be extrapolated from erroneous sources and which exceeded the established scope of the survey’s data collection,” the statement read.
The ministry said the bureau was charged with the collection of statistics relating to any of the matters set out in Schedule 1 of the Statistics Act 1961 as subject to the approval and direction of the Minister for Economy.
“By exceeding the scope of data collection and ignoring fact-based methodology, Mr Naiqama breached the terms of his contract with the ministry.
“Under his employment contract, Mr Naiqama will be paid all salary and accrued entitlements for the period up to 15 September 2021.”
The 2019-2020 HIES revealed that 258,053 out of Fiji’s total population of 864,132 or 29.9 per cent were living in poverty based on the single national poverty line set at $2179.39 per adult equivalent per year, or $41.91 per week.
According to the survey, 200,871 were Christians, 41,042 were Hindus and 11,679 were Muslims.
According to the document, 192,977 iTaukei were living in poverty compared with 58,933 Fijians of Indian descent.
