The Ministry of Civil Services permanent secretary Parmesh Chand says there will be an investigation into the alleged mismanagement of funds at the 52nd Asian Development Bank annual meeting, held in Denarau, Nadi, in 2019.
An initial allocation of $10 million was set aside for the event which was co-ordinated by the Civil Service Ministry and supported by the Finance Ministry.
An additional $0.9m was sourced from the Head 50 of budget, and Mr Chand believes the budget blowout of $0.9m could have been the result of the lack of proper oversight and governance structure, and that the matter could be referred to FICAC for an investigation into allegations of allowances being paid to civil servants and the unnecessary buying of gifts for participants at the event.
He said a meeting would be held with the Office of the Auditor-General to prioritise the work that needed to be done.
“Particularly in terms of further investigation and interrogation of those involved,” Mr Chand said, adding “there may even be scope of referring it for further scrutiny by other relevant agencies such as FICAC”.
“Before we reach that stage we have to establish a bit more in terms of evidence on file.
“We are here four and half years later trying to look into what transpired in a major event of that nature, which brought in enormous benefits for Fiji, but at the same time there ought to have been a proper oversight and proper governance structure to be able to see the spending side of the project.”
Mr Chand said as head of the civil service “I will put in extra effort to ensure we reach the bottom of this”.
“To bring to light if there were issues or malpractices which have not been highlighted so far, particularly in some of the entries that were voided and some allowances being paid to civil servants.”
He added he would get the exact details of the amount, “but I was told there was a decision to buy gifts for all participants which were not procured for in advance”.
Meanwhile, Assistant Finance Minister and Public Accounts Committee chairman Esrom Immanuel said given the substantial taxpayer funds committed to the event and how it was organised, the Office of the Auditor-General conducted a special investigation to verify the anomalies.
“This included the violation of sums, financial management rules and regulations, elements of fraud that were raised, and to also assess the overall procurement process and payments of goods and services and payments of allowances that were made to the Ministry of Civil Service.”
