FIJI’S proposed repeal of FICAC has triggered a warning from Transparency and Integrity Fiji that constitutional reform must not leave the country without an effective, independent and specialised anti-corruption system.
Transparency and Integrity Fiji (TIF) executive director Paulina Rauca said the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill 2026, which expressly provides for the repeal of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 2007, raised serious questions about Fiji’s international obligations.
“Changing the institutional structure does not remove the responsibility to maintain an effective anti-corruption system,” Ms Rauca said.
She said Fiji had been a State Party to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) since 2008, with Articles 6 and 36 requiring appropriate preventive and specialised anti-corruption authorities with the necessary independence, resources and trained personnel.
Ms Rauca said the issue was not whether Fiji could abolish or restructure FICAC, but whether any replacement system would meet those standards.
“The central issue is not whether FICAC must remain unchanged. It is whether Fiji will retain an anti-corruption framework that is genuinely independent, properly resourced, specialised and accountable.”
TIF said Parliament and the public needed clear answers before the FICAC Act was repealed, including which institutions would investigate corruption, how specialised expertise and resources would be retained, and what safeguards would protect politically sensitive investigations from undue influence.
The Constitution Review Commission had proposed retaining FICAC’s investigative role while transferring prosecutorial authority exclusively to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Ms Rauca said concerns about institutional weaknesses should lead to transparent reforms rather than an accountability vacuum.
“Constitutional reform must strengthen accountability.”
