THREE months after being thrust into the spotlight, acting Fiji Corrections Service commissioner Sevuloni Naucukidi breaks his silence on the firestorm that followed his appointment.
In an exclusive interview with The Fiji Times, he confronted the rumours, set the record straight on the viral nightclub video, and hit back at critics questioning his credentials.
ON Monday (21/7/25), the Fiji Corrections Service acting commissioner Sevuloni Naucukidi finally agreed to a one-on-one exclusive interview with The Fiji Times journalist MERI RADINIBARAVI as a response to the barrage of personal attacks on social media against him, his staff and their families, and also assumed breaches of conduct within the organisation.
The Fiji Times: How did you learn about your appointment?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: I was on bereavement leave when I got a call from the Solicitor-General, Ropate Green, that the Prime Minister wanted to see me. I got there and I was interviewed straight away without any preparation by the COC (Constitutional Offices Commission) committee and asked me if I was willing to act in the position.
The Fiji Times: What happened after the announcement of your appointment?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: I started getting attacked. I took an oath to serve the Fiji Corrections Service, and the Government of Fiji and Mr (Siromi) Turaga (acting Attorney-General and Justice Minister) didn’t know anything about it (appointment). He’s got nothing to do with it at all and the reason I’m saying this is because as soon as I got the acting appointment, people started attributing it to my alleged familial connections with Mr Turaga. The easiest way to explain our relationship is that he’s from Nairai, and I’m from Gau, both from the Lomaiviti Province. Then they started talking about my qualifications too.
The Fiji Times: You also copped a lot of flak online following the viral video from O’Reilly’s Club. What happened there?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: I was still assistant commissioner at that time. That day, we had an official invite
from COM- POL. My wife was at a function as well and the plan was for me to pick her up afterwards. But COMPOL opened the bar at their Mess Hall, and we were all invited and obliged, and knowing that I couldn’t drive under that condition, I asked my wife to pick me up after. But she was coming late from a function, so I and a colleague walked down to town and walked into O’Reilly’s to wait for her just at the
first table as you step in for easy access to the door. We then went into the smoking room, and as we returned, my colleague was punched first, I got the second punch out from nowhere on my nose, and I saw stars. When I turned my head, I received another punch to my left eyebrow which is still scarred today. I
reacted and luckily the bouncers were there; I almost even hit the bouncer too in retaliation. We were both hit by a total stranger who turned out to be a drunk kid who was just highly intoxicated. There are a lot of things I regret about that evening but that is what happened. That video was maliciously edited to ruin me.
The Fiji Times: Tell us about your qualifications and why you think you fit the bill?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: I went through all the promotional courses inside the institution. People think that academic achievements from tertiary institutions apply here. The work of Corrections you cannot learn at USP or FNU. We have our own training here and overseas which officers go through. Of course, academic
qualifications may give you an edge in making logical decisions, but the gist of working with inmates is learnt in recruit school, our promotional courses and with our overseas partners. I’ve gone through the ranks, worked as head of HR, head of the audit unit, I was head of operations, head of rehabilitation. Worked as OC in three prisons and as supervisor for three divisions. I went through the system. I started as a civilian in the accounts department, then recruited and became a COC (lowest rank) and I came up through the ranks and so when they (COC committee) were asking me questions, I knew what I was talking about. I was recently promoted to the position of assistant commissioner operations on 24 May, 2024. However, in the subsequent eight months, I was rotated through several other management positions within the FCS, a total of six times. This series of rotations occurred due to the downgrading of the
deputy commissioner’s appointment to assistant commissioner of policy, training and rehabilitation, as well as the enlistment of a new assistant commissioner. Unfortunately, these continuous reshuffles hindered our
ability to accomplish significant progress, as the frequent changes in leadership and responsibilities disrupted the continuity needed to effectively achieve our objectives.
The Fiji Times: What was your first observation when you took up the acting post?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: I saw a moral decay in the staff from the past 16 years. The staff were used to being
told things and it seems like everything was controlled from up here (headquarters) that people in authority have lost their sense of authority, what they can do, the power of delegation and the leadership powers that they have. When you take away that power from people, that sense of authority, it demoralises them. It’s like they don’t trust themselves so we have to push them again to believe that they can delegate and make
decisions according to the roles they’re in. Our units were working in isolation, working in silos.
The Fiji Times: What was done to help address this? Sevuloni Naucukidi:
There were a lot of changes going in regard to the leadership, and so the first thing we tried to do was to
empower the OCs (officers-incharge) and supervisors and give them back their powers. We introduced more training, visited the different divisions and its facilities, talking to the different levels of leadership and our men and women on the ground.
The Fiji Times: Why do you feel this is important?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: That’s another thing about us. We don’t only have the officers; we have two groups of people to look after. The officers, and the main ones we’re here for – the offenders. To look after these people (offenders) properly, we have to set these people (staff) right. When I issue an ‘A’ from here, that
‘A’ should go down to the last officer, then goes to the prisoner, then to the last prisoner and then back. That ‘A’ should come back as the ‘A’ I gave.
The Fiji Times: What about the leaks? There’s been a lot of information going out from the institution and being shared on social media.
Sevuloni Naucukidi: We are attending to this, and investigations are ongoing.
The Fiji Times: Tell us what you feel you have achieved these past three months while acting in this position? Sevuloni Naucukidi: Firstly, we’ve developed the strategic plan and annual corporate plan, we managed to get accreditation from the Fiji Higher Education Commission which means that we can provide certification to inmates and former inmates, we’re now engaging with different faith-based organisations. We managed to strengthen our finance and logistics department so that we can have better budget preparations. I
think the biggest achievement was the budget increase from $57.8 million to $62.5m, and the turnout for the 2025 Yellow Ribbon Program walk in Nausori which was more than 5000.
The Fiji Times: Moving forward, what are your plans for the institution?
Sevuloni Naucukidi: We are building a team to work on where we are at the moment and find out all our
weaknesses in relation to the challenges that we’re facing. There’s a lot of things that need to be done with our law as well, and because of all these changes that’s coming in, the war on drugs, the rehabilitation side of it, so we need to amend our laws. But the main thing is taking care of the morale of the staff.
Ensuring improved confidence, job security and communication.
