Opposition Member of Parliament Rinesh Sharma has strongly rejected allegations that opposition MPs used parliamentary committee field visits to campaign, calling the claims “baseless, false and misleading.”
Responding during parliamentary debate, Mr Sharma defended his conduct.
“When I travel, I do not travel in my vehicle. At the end of the day, I stay where we are all located,” he said in Parliament on Tuesday.
“But they (Ministers) who have a vehicle and a driver have higher chances of going around and meeting people — and I am not blaming anyone.”
Mr Sharma added that if there were concerns about misuse of government resources, the Minister should consider installing GPS trackers in official vehicles to monitor their movements.
His comments followed concerns raised by Government Minister Ro Filipe Tuisawau, who condemned what he called the misuse of committee visits for political gain.
“I am very concerned that especially members of the committees are using the committee’s field visits to campaign and also get information from their support base,” Ro Filipe had told Parliament.
