Speaker of Parliament Filimone Jitoko has directed the withdrawal of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs’ consolidated review report on the Fiji Higher Education Commission annual reports for 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 for further scrutiny.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Jitoko said he had issued a directive to the committee chairperson after attempts to resolve issues surrounding the report over the past six months.
“Having tried to resolve this matter over the past six months, I now deem it pertinent to invoke Standing Order 20 for the purposes of ensuring effective oversight and scrutiny,” Jitoko said.
He said the report was being withdrawn from Parliament and referred back to the Standing Committee on Social Affairs for additional examination before being retabled.
“The Consolidated Review Report on the 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 Fiji Higher Education Commission Annual Reports is hereby withdrawn from Parliament for further scrutiny by the Standing Committee on Social Affairs,” he said.
The report was removed from the parliamentary order paper despite having already been approved by the Business Committee for debate.
The withdrawal was due to objections raised by Government in the report that had questioned funding towards Pacific Polytech.
