Sugar Minister Charan Jeath Singh has hit out at the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC), claiming some present board members “have no connection to the farmers”.
He said this at a consultation with canegrowers in Rakiraki on Tuesday after Rakiraki farmer Ranjit Singh asked why there was no one from Rakiraki serving on the FSC board.
“We have nine board members, all have been selected,” the minister said.
“For the first time in history, we are appointing a woman to the board who is a sirdar of 12 cane cutting gangs and she is a Fijian lady. We are trying to achieve gender balance.
“We need some professional people who have experience.
“There are one or two who are still there who have no connection to the farmers and their term is about to expire. Once their term ends, then we will consider someone from Rakiraki.”
Newly-appointed New Zealand-based FSC board member, Nitya Reddy, also questioned how the former FSC board chairman, who lived in Canada, was able to perform his duties.
“You would have noticed that in 2018, the previous government appointed the chairman of Fiji Sugar Corporation by the name of Vishnu Mohan,” he said.
“He was sitting in Vancouver, 12,000 kilometres away and he thought he could run the sugar industry by looking at a computer screen on Zoom and running the industry.
“That shows how things were run.
“We have got local talent here and it is a colonial practice that we did not respect our own people.”
