Bula
There was a fair bit of rain over the past few days and the weather office is suggesting this will go on till Thursday. For a change, it did not rain this afternoon in the Capital City, Suva.
PROMOTIONS
We have two promotions running right now and you can win cash in the back-to-school promotion, or you could win a holiday at a top resort in the Valentine’s Day promotion. Check out the newspaper for details!
HEADLINES
PAGE 1
- A motion seeking Parliament approval for Government to guarantee $200 million in borrowings by the Fiji Development Bank from March to February next year set off a heated debate in the House, with the Opposition questioning the motive of the borrowing.
- Road damage Lovu, Lautoka.
PG 2-3
- THE Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) has said it accepts the reports by the Auditor General as factually correct and agreed that the audit reports tabled in Parliament were balanced and fair.
- NATIONAL Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad challenged Government to call on the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation and Fiji Sun to declare whether they had a political affiliation with the Fiji First Party.
- NATIONAL Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad yesterday asked the Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to reveal the sale price and total debt Pullman Resort owed the Fiji Development Bank.
- BE a leader and forget about elections, Infrastructure Minister Jone Usamate told the Opposition as he called on them to support a motion for government to guarantee the Fiji Development Bank’s $200 million borrowings for 12 months from March 1 this year.
- OPPOSITION MP Niko Nawaikula says Government abused Parliament when it brought – without notice – a motion by Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum that Government guarantee the Fijian Development bank borrowings of $200 million for the 12-month period from March 1 this year to February 28 next year.
- FIJI’s foreign reserves would have depleted greatly if Government had not borrowed from offshore to inject into the various sectors of the economy, says Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz-Sayed-Khaiyum.
- EVEN though the nominal value of Fiji’s debt had increased from $2.8 billion in 2016 to $5.7 billion at the end of 2019 before the COVID pandemic, it’s debt to GDP ratio had declined from 53.3 per cent to 48 per cent, says Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
- NATIONAL Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad questioned the purpose of a motion for Parliament to approve a government guarantee of $200 million borrowings by the Fiji Development bank over a one year period. He said the FDB’s 2019 annual report painted a different picture from what Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had said in Parliament.
PG 4
- SIXTY men in Fiji have died from prostate cancer since 2020, and this is a worrying figure, says Pacific Laboratory Specialists executive Josese Mailulu
- ABOUT 92 per cent of men in Fiji have not been tested for prostate cancer, says Pacific Laboratory Specialists executive Josese Mailulu.
- Legendary Indian singer, Lata Mangeshkar’s memorable songs will continue to entertain and delight music lovers in years to come, says former Prime Minister and Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry.
PG 5
- THE Office of the President was given an additional $558,323 in 2018 to cover costs for “unplanned but extremely essential” events and activities, the Public Accounts Committees Review of the 2017-2018 Whole of Government Audit Reports that was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday said.
- ACTING Prime Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the law allows for Energy Fiji Limited (EFL) to be exempted from being audited by the Office of the Auditor- General.
- A TOTAL of 25 individuals were removed from Fiji by the Department of immigration (DOI) between August 2018 – July 2019, states the Office of the Prime Minister & Department of Immigration annual report that was tabled in Parliament on Monday.
- AN annual client survey by the Office of the Auditor General found the office was seen as independent and one that identified relevant problems and issues
PG 7
- Lalit Kumar made a gruesome discovery on Tuesday afternoon when he went to survey the damage to his vegetable farm near the Navo River in Nadi.
- NO comment. That was former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ruveni Nadalo’s response when asked about a proposed new party that applied to be registered as We Unite Fiji Party.
- REPAIR works were carried out by Water Authority of Fiji officials on a damaged water main supplying water to residents of Maururu in Ba. The engineers worked late into Tuesday night to repair the system damaged by floodwaters
- The Nadi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) president Dr Ram Raju has clarified that a press release issued on February 2, 2022 on the “No Jab, No Job” policy was a statement from the NCCI and not from the Fiji College of General Practitioners (FCGP) as quoted in the Fiji Times article on February 5, 2022.
SPORTS
Page 44 (Back)
THE historic inclusion of the Fijiana Drua in the 2022 Buildcorp Super W (Australia’s Super Women’s competition) is seen as a major step to provide a pathway opportunity for young girls and women in the country into an elite competition.
Page 43
FOOTBALL lovers are in for a treat because Sunday, February 13, is setting up to be a football marathon at the ANZ Stadium in Suva during the start of the much-anticipated 2022 Digicel Premier League competition.
