Andrew Moti Singh, FNU's former Manager Finance Project, to FICAC:
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BY FIJILEAKS INVESTIGATION TEAM THE FIJI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY is a "graduate" of illegality, incorporated pursuant to the Fiji National University (Amendment) Decree 2010. In October 2009 the then illegal Cabinet and the Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum had approved Fiji's third university - FNU. The decree formalised the set up of FNU from the merger of six state owned tertiary institutions – Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT), the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM), the Fiji School of Nursing (FSN), the Lautoka Teachers College (LTC), the Fiji College of Advanced Education (FCAE), and the Fiji College of Agriculture (FCA). Those behind it were the then Minister of Education Filipe Bole, Dr Ganesh Chand and Dr Mahendra Reddy, who had been hired as a consultant in the setting up of the new university. Bole, grateful to Chand from the University of Fiji days, later got Chand appointed as the new Vice Chancellor of FNU. In December 2009 Chand was appointed VC. In making the announcement Education Minister Bole says Chand was selected because of his vast experience in education and his more recent experience in management of an educational institution. Chand is an economist by profession, and was minister for national planning, local government, housing and environment in 1999 and 2000. Chand also played an instrumental role in the establishment of the University of Fiji which is based in Lautoka. The FNU was to commence operations in 2010. FNU was set up as a business entity and all its dealings was meant to be corporate. In January 2010 FNU launched its logo at the Ministry of Education's headquarters-Marela House, with Bole claiming the FNU logo would become a respected and highly regarded symbol of education and intellectual endeavour. "The design itself represents the united vision of the FNU. The logo has clean, contemporary lines, but retains a flavour of our cultural identity and our Pacific environment. The blue colour is not only traditional shade for education institutions but is also the colour of the Pacific Ocean that links our island nations. In our symbol, the solid circles on the line may be seen to represent droplets of knowledge and wisdom, which become larger in the continuum of knowledge, represented by the circle," Bole said. The logo, designed and developed by Oceanic Communications, indicated unity within the university and with its purpose, he said. Today, the same logo, stands stained with controversy: the much praised VC Chand has been unceremoniously sent home with reportedly half a million dollars in "golden handshake": this despite FICAC having a thick file on Chand, Bole, Reddy, and others linked to the FNU - they stand accused of corruption, mismanagement of funds, and abuse of office.There are also accusations of sexual assaults, bullying, and harassment of staff who dared to try and expose the scandals inside FNU - Fiji's very own "Academic Animal Farm". One staffer claims to Fijileaks that there was even a cover up of attempted rape in the FNU office. THE PRINCIPAL COMPLAINANT The principal complainant to FICAC is one ANDREW MOTI SINGH, the former Manager Finance Project (MFP) at FNU. Fijileaks: We are publishing the acknowledgement letter (right) dated 15 September 2014 from FICAC to Singh because as we are aware from past experiences FICAC spokesmen are notorious serial liars at denying materials published on Fijileaks. For example, they had reportedly told Fiji Sun that the former Health Minister Dr Neil Sharma's 'Ficac file' published by Fijileaks was FAKE, a claim which we have robustly disproved, and will be publishing more damaging materials on Sharma in the future. WHO is Andrew Moti Singh, the complainant to FICAC who blew the whistle on FNU corruption, abuse of abusive and a host of other allegations. We will let him speak to us as he explained to FICAC in his official sworn statement dated 15 September 2014: 1. My full name is Andrew Moti Singh. 2. My date of birth is xxxx. I am currently xx years old. 3. My usual occupation is an Accountant. 4. My current residential address is xxxxxx, Laucala Beach, Nasinu. 5. My mobile phone number is xxxxxxx. 6. I have been residing at my current address since 4/7/14. 7. My permanent residential address in Australia is xxxxxxx. 8. My phone contact in Sydney is xxxxxx. 9. I am an Australian citizen. I also hold New Zealand (NZ) citizenship. I am a former Fiji citizen by birth. 10. I hold an Australian Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree from the University of Queensland, Australia. I graduated with this degree in 1994. I also hold a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Auckland, NZ. I graduated with LLB in 1999. I also completed my Legal Practice Training Course in NZ in the same year. 11. My professional memberships include: > CPA Australia > Institute of Public Accountants Australia > CPA Papua New Guinea > Tax Institute Australia > Chartered Accountant (Fiji) > Barrister and Solicitor (High Court of Fiji) 12. Prior to joining FNU I was the Senior Finance Officer/Trust Accountant at the Legal Aid Commission of NSW. Before that role, I was the Management Accountant at HP Packaging Pty Ltd in Sydney. Prior to these roles, I had worked as Management Accountant and Cost Accountant in Adelaide with some of Australia’s largest manufacturing companies from 2003 till 2006. I migrated to Australia from NZ in 2002. While in NZ I worked as an Accountant, Auditor and Forensic Accountant from 1986 to 2002. HOW DID SINGH GET THE JOB? 13. I came to work as Manager Finance Project (MFP) at FNU from Australia following my decision to return to Fiji temporarily and contribute to its economic development. I initially approached the Fiji Embassy in Sydney following Fiji Government’s change to its citizenship policy. I was advised that based on my qualifications and experience, there may be employment opportunities in the public sector. I recall making inquiries with Ganesh Chand, the Vice Chancellor of FNU who asked me to email him my CV which I did during 2010. Mr Chand is a close friend of my brother Vijay Singh of Melbourne and my friend Vijay Narayan of NZ. 14. Mr Chand then asked me to visit him to discuss any suitable roles for me. In June 2010 I met Mr Chand and Narendra Prasad (FNU’s Finance and Human Resources Director) at Mr Chand’s office in Nasinu. Mr Chand advised me that FNU would soon be advertising for the role of MFP which I should apply. Mr Prasad was supposed to send me the details of the role and the application procedure following the job advertisement. I recall Mr Prasad sending me only the job description for the role. 15. On or about 15/11/13 I was phone interviewed for the MFP role. Mr Prasad chaired the panel. I did not complete any FNU application form, nor address any selection criteria or sent any covering letter. I was later offered the role and signed my employment contract on 31/1/14. FNU later obtained work permit for me. I officially started my role on 7/7/14. 16. The job description of my role is wide ranging, but may be summarised as follows: > Providing and interpreting financial information; > Business modelling and forecasting; > Monitoring performance and efficiency; > Analysing change and conducting risk assessments; > Strategic planning and devising business plans; > Preparing financials and reconciling balance sheet items; > Monitoring cash flows; > Leading or working on projects; > Take responsibility for overall financial management; > Liaise and negotiate funding with donors; > Ensuring compliance with corporate governance, laws and regulations; > Ensuring all finances properly managed (including credit control); > Advise the Director Finance on appropriate matters. What did Singh find once he began work at FNU, and Chand's Cover Up Threat? Within months into my job, I discovered that both Chand and Prasad were involved in official corruption and abuse of office contrary to the Penal Code, the Crimes Decree 2009 and the Promulgation. A sample of their conduct which led me to this assessment includes their misleading of the Audit Committee and the Financial Resources Committee of the FNU to hide abuse/mismanagement of FNU funds; abuse of FNU credit card for personal gain; nepotism/cronyism in staff recruitment processes; blackmailing FNU staff who had wanted to refer the duo’s corruptive behaviour to FICAC; unauthorised payment of medical costs of FNU council member and his family in return for financial kickbacks; and more seriously, making false/misleading statements to FNU external auditors and donors to hide a potential liability to FNU of some $6m. The latter is what I have referred to as the Kiri-EU saga in this complaint. In light of my assessment, I tendered my resignation on 20/8/14 [ANNEXURE B]. Prasad had a meeting with me on 28/8/14 to persuade me to withdraw my resignation but I refused. During our discussions I raised some of my above concerns and intimated that given the seriousness of matter I was considering making a formal complaint to FICAC. This was met with immediate retaliation – Prasad making false allegation against me of wilful disobedience to Chand with the objective to have me summarily dismissed after I had rejected Prasad’s waiver of my 3 months’ notice period following my resignation. It was apparent that the duo did not want me to delve any further into their corrupt conduct and wanted me to return to Australia immediately; hence summary dismissal would be the best way to achieve this. I was interviewed about Prasad’s allegation on 9/9/14 by an investigator hand-picked by Chand. I had specifically asked the investigator for the interview to be recorded and I be provided with a copy of the recording. I provided my comprehensive written submissions with supporting documentary evidence to Prasad’s allegation to the investigator. A copy of my submissions dated 9/9/14 is enclosed [ANNEXURE C]. FICAC will note that some of the matters raised therein itself demonstrates official corruption and abuse of official power by Chand and Prasad. During the interview the investigator raised questions about my previous convictions which are now spent in Fiji pursuant to Rehabilitation of Offenders (Irrelevant Convictions) Act 1997. Clearly this was done to either intimidate, blackmail or simply dissuade me from complaining to FICAC. To date, I have not been given a copy of the recorded interview, despite my repeated requests to the duo. Against this background, I now turn to particularise my claims of corruption and abuse of office against Chand and Prasad Fijileaks Editor: A VICTOR LAL exclusive beginning TOMORROW on the raft of complaints against "Dada" Chand and his obliging side-kicks at FNU as contained in the letter and supporting evidence given to FICAC! We will reveal how Ganesh Chand and his side-kick Narendra Prasad, with Mahendra Reddy and other FNU Council members turning a blind eye, ran FNU as if it was Chand's "ANIMAL FARM"; now they have let him escape with FICAC dithering to take him and many others into CUSTODY! Fijileaks Editor: We publish below Wadan Narsey's praise and defence; he says where is natural justice for Chand - what the championing professor failed to read between the lines is that the FNU Council dumped "a bad penny" to save their own "pound" of flesh from FICAC! "It is surely also no fault of VC Ganesh Chand that since the 2006 coup (i.e. right from the inception of FNU) the traditional donors (Australia, NZ, EU and others) shunned providing funds to a national institution like FNU because of their sanctions against the Bainimarama Government, with USP thereby enjoying the real “windfall gains” (through no sweat on their part), because donors wished to stay engaged with the Fiji people, even if indirectly. Now that Fiji has a democratically elected government and donors have re-established normal relations with Fiji, I expect donor funds to flood to FNU over the next four years (I sincerely hope that the exhilarated new FNU executives do not proudly claim personal credit for this turnaround).Wadan Narsey Fiji National University, the Bainimarama Government and Bad Governance Professor Wadan Narsey (10 January 2015) The sudden departure of the founding Vice Chancellor from the Fiji National University (FNU) is an important enough event for the real owners and stakeholders in the university- the tax payers of Fiji, the current and future students and their parents, and future employers of the graduates, to call for honest answers from the Bainimarama Government. Professional, transparent and accountable human resource management, is a crucial part of the good governance of all corporate bodies, including universities and their councils, and companies with their boards of directors. Between 2006 and 2014, the unelected Bainimarama Government hired and fired civil servants, board members and senior management of statutory authorities, as they wished, with little transparency or accountability to the public. The Public Service Commissioners and boards of the statutory authorities were merely “rubber stamps” uncritically obeying ministers’ orders and sending out the letters of dismissal, with the victims having no recourse to appeal, either within the organization or the courts. With an elected government in place today, the public rightly expect that ministers will be fully transparent and accountable to the tax payers, whose assets and development interests are at stake. But the well-publicized allegedly “amicable” departure of the Vice Chancellor of FNU (this article) and the termination of two senior executives from Fiji TV (another article) indicate that good governance is being seriously undermined by ministerial interference and undesirable micro-management of our public bodies. Unless other facts are revealed to the public, the evidence here indicates that members of the FNU Council, and specifically its Chair (Minister of Education, Dr Mahendra Reddy), are seriously failing in their fiduciary duty to the Fiji taxpayers, by pressuring the FNU Vice Chancellor into a supposedly “amicable” departure, thereby undermining the independence and academic integrity of Fiji’s national university, and denying natural justice to its CEO. Similar events have also taken place with respect to the termination of the Fiji TV executives. For Fiji to return to being a just society, the public must show the courage to shake themselves out of their current cowardly lethargy and demand full accountability, transparency and integrity from the FNU Council and Fiji TV Board members, who have a fiduciary duty to professionally and fairly manage the human resources they have accepted responsibility for. The public must also demand accountability from the Bainimarama Government which promised honest and transparent governance to voters, not just during the September 2014 elections, but in the values espoused by their own 2013 Constitution. The Departure of FNU Vice Chancellor The Press Release signed by the Minister of Education (dated 29 Dec. 2014) ) stated: “Following discussion’s in the Council meeting for a redirection and consolidation of the University’s strategic focus, the Chairperson of the University Council, the University Council and the Vice Chancellor have mutually agreed that the Vice Chancellor’s employment contract be brought to an end before the expiry of the same. The mutual parting of ways has been amicable.” The Minister also stated paradoxically: “The University Council is full of praise for Dr. Ganesh Chand. Having worked with the Vice Chancellor over the past 5 years, and having seen his leadership first hand, I echo these sentiments as well. Dr. Chand was always on his toes. He was full of energy and determination to make the University a credible and a leading university. It was his strategic thinking, and his drive, enthusiasm and passion that saw the rapid development of the University.” Dr Reddy forgot to mention that it was the vision, energy and enthusiasm of Dr Ganesh Chand that saw the formation of FNU from its disparate elements in the first place. In the process he would have had to tread on the toes of many former CEOs who were suddenly deprived of total control of their turfs, and diplomacy is not known to be one of Dr Ganesh Chand’s strengths. But Dr Chand is also credited by many as being the initiator of Fiji University as well, until micro-managers there ensured a parting of ways. But while the Press Release gives the impression that the FNU Council also wished Dr Chand to depart, VC Chand’s email to FNU staff (of 30 Dec. 2014) clearly stated otherwise: “Please be advised that the Chairperson of the FNU Council, Dr. Mahendra Reddy, advised me and the members of the Council of the University of the need to change the Vice Chancellorship of the University”. (my emphasis) It may be relevant that the FNU Council’s term was finishing at the end of the year and a new one was to be appointed by the Minister for Education. Dr Ganesh Chand would have naturally expected, given the experiences of many others in similar positions, that the Minister could easily appoint Council Members enough of whom would be amenable enough to eject the VC without fulfilling his contractual entitlements, further reduced by costly legal battles. It was probably quite sensible for Dr Chand to accept his contractual entitlements, and agree to call his departure “amicable”, which he did. But, given the full-some praise of Chand by both Dr Reddy and the FNU Council, the public are entitled to ask what reasons were given by Dr Reddy to justify terminating Dr Chand’s tenure as Vice Chancellor, before the end of his contract. While many, for political reasons, may chuckle at Ganesh Chand’s departure from FNU, there are far more important issues critical for FNU’s academic integrity and future independence. If the Education Minister’s stated “hands-on” approach (i.e. micro-management, including termination of staff considered “undesirable” by Government), is accepted by the FNU Council, there is grave risk to academic freedom at FNU, inevitably leading to “self-censoring” by academic staff for self-preservation, as they currently do at The University of the South Pacific (USP). So what were the reasons for the Vice Chancellor’s departure, euphemistically described as “amicable”? Reddy’s reasons for termination There have been many allegations on the blogs about the reasons for Dr Chand’s departure including unproven allegations of nepotism and fraud being investigated by FICAC, but these were denied by Dr Reddy as a reason for the amicable separation. Dr Reddy is quoted by The Fiji Times (of 30 December 2014) as saying that he and Dr Chand had a “slight divergence of views” and that “We believe that now is not the time to make any new major expansion but the time to consolidate, and I think that’s where the difference is”. Dr Reddy also claimed that the FNU Council wanted a “redirection and consolidation of the university’s strategic focus” which was not the same direction Dr Chand was taking the university and “the Council decided mutually with Dr Chand that he will leave FNU“(my emphases). But the Minister’s claim that Dr Chand had to leave merely because of a “slight divergence” of opinion between himself and the Vice Chancellor over some “focus on consolidation rather than expansion” is totally lacking in credibility and needs further examination, as is his allegation that the FNU Council also disagreed with the Vice Chancellor’s strategic direction and therefore wanted him out. The ordinary public may not know that Dr Mahendra Reddy, a former colleague and close friend of Dr Ganesh Chand at USP, was in fact hired by the FNU Vice Chancellor to be one of his important Deans, and was subsequently in his innermost circle of decision-making on all strategic developments at FNU. The Minister was well aware of the VC’s ambitious plans, based on his sound knowledge and experience as a labour market economist of the demand for tertiary technical graduates in Fiji, regionally and internationally, to appropriately plan the further expansion of FNU in both range of activities and geographical catchment outreach, not just to Vanua Levu but also the wider Pacific region. These were plans that any labour market economist (including myself), the FNU Council, and the Bainimarama Government would have approved, given their strategic political and economic assistance to several PICs, especially the Melanesian and the Micronesian countries, such as in teaching assistance. If the FNU Council felt differently about some specificities in the FNU plan, all they had to do was to express their wishes to the Vice Chancellor as a policy guideline which he would have had to implement. Should the Vice Chancellor then fail to follow the accepted policy guidelines, it is basic good practice in human resource management that the FNU Council would officially notify the VC in writing, and give him the opportunity to remedy the alleged defects, with a warning of termination if the VC did not comply satisfactorily. Is there any record of the FNU Council ever formally expressing its dis-satisfaction with the FNU Vice Chancellor’s performance in any respect whatsoever, including FNU’s future direction? I doubt it, as I have been told by anonymous sources that Dr Chand was fully supported and praised by the FNU Council, and there was no dissatisfaction with his performance as Vice Chancellor, certainly not serious enough to warrant his termination as Vice Chancellor. It is also beyond comprehension that an experienced academic and wily administrator like Dr Ganesh Chand, would have refused to accede to any reasonable FNU Council decision for a “change of focus” and “consolidation” rather than “expansion”, especially if termination was given as the alternative. Dr Reddy’s public explanations for Ganesh Chand’s departure from FNU are internally contradictory, flimsy, and just do not hold any water. Of greater relevance may be the dressing down he gave the FNU Council and the Vice Chancellor in mid-November. Dr Reddy’s Address to FNU Council The Minister’s address to the FNU Council on the 10 November 2014 as Chair of the FNU Council, included the following statements, which I quote verbatim in italics (with grammatical errors, surprising for a Minister of Education who constantly demands quality from schools and teachers): “Members, our own National University allow government to peddle its national agenda….It can ask, direct or instruct the University to take the programme, discourse, spending in a direction that will allow the University to deliver on to the vision of Government…. the governments vision which could have amendments every now and then are to be presented to the senior management as when the amendments are made. It is for this reason Government is responsible for the appointment of the Council and the Senior Management team….. it is for this reason, to protect the CEO and Government and provide guidance with the framework of the Decree and other policies of University, we have Council sub committees. These sub committees must scrutinize thoroughly papers and ask critical questions which will ensure that the University remains on course at all times.” One sentiment expressed here is acceptable: i.e. that once appointed, the FNU Council, with the assistance of its Sub-Committees, is then directly responsible for ensuring that the Vice Chancellor delivers upon the Vision and Mission Statements, and whatever Strategic Plans that have been agreed upon collectively between the Council and Senior Management. But Dr Reddy’s speech went on to state quite worryingly: “there is a contrary view that Government appoints the CEO and then sits back and only at quite a late stage to realize that the damage is done. The CEO/VC is accountable to the Government via the Council. A hands off approach could spell disaster and provide room for bad governance practice hands an oversight is needed.” (my emphasis) So what did Dr Reddy see as the damage, nay, the “disaster” brought on by VC Chand? Dr Reddy listed them: public relations with stakeholders and potential donors could be improved; there were concerns about the suitability and quality of some existing programs, staffing, library resources and workshops; there was a public perception of FNU associated with FICAC’s raid on FNU; and inadequate utilization of existing properties (I come to this last complaint later). Except for the FICAC issue, all the problems would have been on-going from day one, and FNU Council and Management would have been tackling them (as also does USP). A more specific and strange complaint by the Minister was: “At times we may get tempted to tap into regional market as there may seem to exist some windfall gains which the University could exploit. I strongly urge that you leave that to our regional University. That’s their domain. We remain national in our presence but international with respect to our staffing profile and research and publication… Any knowledgeable education economist would challenge this advice by the Minister and his irrelevant reference to “windfall gains”. FNU’s technical training offerings in many fields are substantially different from that offered by USP, far more labour market oriented, and there are indeed excellent niche markets in the region which FNU can rightly tap into, and was beginning to do so, with much appreciation by regional students. Even in areas competing with USP, FNU’s offerings are considerably cheaper than USP thereby assisting university access to poor students unable to afford USP’s higher fees. As important, it is now obvious to the public that Fiji’s tertiary students (including those at USP) have all benefited enormously because of the competition that FNU has brought to USP, with the latter totally shaken out of their four decades of complacency in all areas of service delivery to the great delight of advertising and television and radio companies who are minting a fortune in the process (students might like to research how much has been spent by USP on advertising compared to the period before FNU appeared on the scene). Keep in mind also that regional students at FNU paying full economic fees (which are higher than the average Fiji Government grant per capita) are an increasing source of marginal funds for FNU, while earning additional foreign exchange for Fiji. As in Australia, Fiji’s entire education system including quality tertiary, secondary and primary schools, has become a valuable export earner to the region, especially Melanesia and Micronesia (not to mention the Tuvaluans, Kiribati and Nauruans who have bought housing in Fiji to facilitate their children’s education). Bad comparison with USP Strangest of all was Dr Reddy criticism of VC Chand that “The reality is, for the competitive programmes, FNU is not the University of first choice for most of the students”. [Read: “USP is”.] While Dr Reddy would never have said this publicly when he was Dean at FNU, this surely cannot be taken as a fair criticism of the Vice Chancellor’s management of FNU or even of FNU itself, however much it might delight USP (expect it to be quoted ad nauseam from now on). It is a fact that USP has the advantage of fifty years of massive capital and recurrent funding support from regional governments and international donors, allowing USP to pay vastly more competitive salaries and attract better quality staff than FNU, with facilities as good as many metropolitan universities of equal size. USP has also had forty seven years of experience, and has been enrolling the best Fiji students who remain to study in Fiji (after the cream have departed overseas on donor scholarships or privately). Parents must think, even with relation to high schools: to what extent does the institution stamp the quality of graduates, and to what extent it is the quality of entering students which results in the output quality of the institution. (Of course, both factors apply and are inter-dependent: you cannot make a silk purse out of the sow’s ear). It is surely also no fault of VC Ganesh Chand that since the 2006 coup (i.e. right from the inception of FNU) the traditional donors (Australia, NZ, EU and others) shunned providing funds to a national institution like FNU because of their sanctions against the Bainimarama Government, with USP thereby enjoying the real “windfall gains” (through no sweat on their part), because donors wished to stay engaged with the Fiji people, even if indirectly. Now that Fiji has a democratically elected government and donors have re-established normal relations with Fiji, I expect donor funds to flood to FNU over the next four years (I sincerely hope that the exhilarated new FNU executives do not proudly claim personal credit for this turnaround). With additional funding from the donors and the Fiji Government, most of the weaknesses identified by Dr Reddy could have been better addressed by the FNU without any need to change the Vice Chancellor. Perhaps Dr Reddy as an FNU Dean for five years should also have told the FNU Council and the Fiji public what he was doing about these very weaknesses he suddenly identified after becoming Minister of Education. What of the FNU Council? Dr Reddy’s actions and statements clearly indicate that far from the FNU Council being unhappy with the VC, it was “someone” in the Bainimarama Government itself (no prizes for guessing who), acting through Dr Reddy as Minister of Education and Chairman of FNU Council, that led the charge to have his former mate and superior, Dr Ganesh Chand, removed as Vice Chancellor. Surprisingly, the FNU Council has not publicly objected. A notable strength of VC Chand was that he managed to create an FNU Council with an unparalleled array of leading professional organisations of relevance to FNU programs and students: the Fiji Law Society, Fiji Institute of Accountants, Fiji Principals’ Association, Fiji Chamber of Commerce, Fiji Institute of Engineers, Fiji Nurses Council, Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, Fiji Medical Association, Trade Unions Confederation, Fiji Teachers’ Union. Readers might like to compare this line up with the lack lustre USP Council membership. Sadly, the FNU Council Members seem to have been passive observers, although many expressed their reservations privately. It may be quite relevant that the Council Members’ terms were coming to an end on the 31st December and a new Council is to be appointed by the Minister for Education, at his discretion. The silence of Prime Minister Bainimarama? Ultimately, however, whatever the decisions made by individual ministers, the buck finally stops with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, whose silence on Dr Ganesh Chand’s departure is interesting for two opposite reasons. First, I suspect that Dr Ganesh Chand was personally responsible for influencing the Bainimarama Government in adopting many of its people-centred policies such as free education, training for rural development, reform of tertiary education scholarships and loans, the development of quality technical colleges to replace inadequately resourced small ones based at schools, and others. These measures which even regime critics praised as being positive for Fiji, were largely responsible for the Fiji First Party victory in the September 2014 elections. These policies reflect much of Dr Ganesh Chand’s personal life and work experiences, including creating an organisation of friends called Fiji Youth and Students League to provide tertiary scholarships for poor denied Indo-Fijian students after the 1987 coup, and starting an excellent new Journal (Fijian Studies) to provide an alternative outlet for academics often denied publication by the established ones. The public should remember that Dr Ganesh Chand was once a socialist Minister in the ill-fated 1999 Labour Government whose term was cut short by the 2000 coup before they could attempt the kinds of policies (some, not all) that Bainimarama has been trying for the last two years, at Dr Chand’s instigation. But to understand another dimension of the Vice Chancellor’s departure, readers may note one more dubious complaint in Dr Reddy’s 10 November speech to FNU Council: “the University is not fully utilizing its existing properties while it wishes to acquire new properties… Quite a number of properties are still not utilized and there are outside entities watching the University closely to see if they can have it and better utilize it.” On the contrary, I suggest that for a university that is destined to grow steadily into the future, especially now that the Bainimarama Government has rightly guaranteed full access to all tertiary qualified students, it is financially sensible to acquire now, urban and peri-urban properties for FNU’s future needs, at the current low prices, instead of waiting until urbanization and speculative foreign and local demand have pushed up prices beyond tax payer’s reach, however necessary for FNU. FNU currently owns extremely valuable farm lands in Navua, acquired for its agricultural programs, but the coconut wireless (the real original one- the kudru ni vanua) apparently has it that these lands are now desired by a powerful Bainimarama-supporting company with financial interests in the dairy industry and the media. It will be interesting to see if the new Acting Vice Chancellor and the soon to be appointed FNU Council agree to the sale of the Navua farm lands to a private company. Ultimately, Bainimarama’s continued silence on the termination of Dr Ganesh Chand as Vice Chancellor of Fiji National University (and Mr Tevita Gonelevu and Ms Tanya Waqanika as senior executives of Fiji TV) does not reflect well on his personal accountability to the tax payers as Prime Minister of Fiji, who supposedly received more than two thirds of the votes going to his Fiji First Party, with other powerful ministers getting dismal numbers. Neither does it reflect well on the powerful professional bodies which are represented on the FNU Council or on the influential individuals who are board members of Fijian Holdings Limited, or the apathetic public (including yet another organisation with an oxymoron for a name, like Transparency International Fiji) who all continue to remain silent, while the fundamental principle of independence of boards and councils is publicly trashed, and natural justice is denied to prominent Fiji citizens and senior managers. I suggest that true development and social justice can only result from collective social efforts, and will never be delivered by some Saviour as mana from heaven, as some tragically hope, in splendid anonymity on the anti-Bainimarama blogs. Professor Narsey takes issue with C4/5 posting, cc'd to Fijileaks: Dear Editor C4.5 I don’t mind you publishing comments that disagree with my view and criticise me. But I am dismayed when you publish someone anonymously accusing me of losing my job because I was asking for money to pass students. This is a blatant and slanderous lie; and you probably know it; yet you still go ahead and publish it. You also publish nasty comments about “vudi” etc being pushed up my backside. I am losing all hope of your blog site being fair to someone like me who has put his neck on the chopping block for eight years now (often on your site), opposing the Bainimarama Regime under my own name while living in Fiji and vulnerable to their arbitrary violence. It may be time for me to move on. For your information, Ganesh is no “buddy” or “friend” of mine and has not been for several years. My article is about the issues involved in Ganesh Chand’s termination, which are of wider application to other comparable situations in Fiji. Professor Wadan Narsey Fiji Leaks analysis shows that since the Tappoo Group entered the fuel market in September 2013, the government-enforced fuel retail margin on diesel has miraculously jumped more than 50 percent and more than 60 percent for unleaded after years of flat-lining. But too late to save the 400 low-skilled jobs of the petrol station attendants forced out of work in October 2010, when Khaiyum was happy to ignore fuel retailers’ complaints the margins his Commerce Commission were setting were too lowWould Carpenters (and even BP Oil) have sold out to a regime-friendly company like Tappoo Group and ended more than a century of fuel supply to the Fiji consumer, if they had known the fuel margins would rise so significantly over the short term? By VICTOR LAL ASTUTE readers of the regime’s faithful newspaper The Fiji Sun may have been left wondering why Aiyaz Khaiyum, the Minister of Finance, had shown a sudden spasm of charity towards fuel distributors, after almost six years of neglect. ‘The fuel retailers’ margins have been fairly low … and now the margin will go up by about one to four percent,’ Aiyaz Khaiyum told the Fiji Sun the Saturday before Christmas. The sale of petroleum products in Fiji is one of a number of areas not set by conventional free market forces of supply, demand and competition. Fuel retail prices are directly set by the Commerce Commission (which took over the price control powers from the now-disbanded Prices and Income Board when Khaiyum, as the state’s chief law officer, drafted the Commerce Commission Decree 2010, and then folded the Commerce Commission under his responsibility as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ant-Corruption, Public Enterprises, Industry, Tourism, Trade and Communications). A look at the Commerce Commission website is rather surprising. For an organisation with such a critical role in Fiji business, no commissioners are listed (there must be a minimum of 4 and maximum of 6 and it is in the commissioner’s executive hands that the power lies) and a search of the Fiji government portal shows no recent appointments. The chairman has not been formally replaced since Khaiyum stooge Dr Mahendra Reddy quit to head into politics and elected office. The acting chairman – the Pakistani-born pharmaceutical manager Firoz Ahmad Ghazali – has been holding the fort since July 2014. As with the functioning of the PIB, some of the workings of the Commerce Commission remain the same. In term of fuel orders, these set the VAT-inclusive price at which the variety of fuel types retailed to the public can be sold. The fuel types covered under the orders are unleaded motor spirit, diesel or gasoil, the premix used in outboard engines, and kerosene. Different prices are set according to the geographic areas of the country. Like the PIB, the Commerce Commission also determines the wholesale price at which the fuel stations buy-in the products they sell at their forecourts. By setting both the retail and wholesale prices (and determining the rate of VAT), the Commerce Commission also – in effect - sets the margin or profit on every litre sold by the fuel retailers. And it’s a big cash business: The Fiji Fuel Retailers Association has estimated the market to be worth $550m annually, driven by an average of 30,000 visits per day to any of the 70-plus fuel stations covered by its membership. Since its current inception the Commerce Commission has had mixed results. It was largely responsible for what deregulation has occurred in the local telecommunications market but anybody who uses the internet in Fiji or the so-called 3G and 4G services will tell you the telecom companies continue to run rings around the Commerce Commission. The Commission has involved itself in many bizarre areas of micro-management – ruling on the prices to be paid by yachties at the Copra Shed Marina in Savusavu for instance– but ignoring other more legitimate consumer issues, for instance the Consumer Council’s campaign to stimulate more competition between the country’s two LPG providers. Businesses regulated have accused it of wielding too much power, being too unaccountable and trying to squeeze down retail prices for political benefit irrespective of what that does to margins and employers. As Hot Bread Kitchen owner Mere Samisoni explained to the Fiji Times when her shops were facing criticism for the scarcity of white longloaf and milk sandwich loaves (both sold at Commerce Commission-controlled pricing that had not changed in four years): ‘This is basic microeconomics, and is the same phenomenon responsible for the dwindling stock level of certain basic commodities in supermarkets and corner stores and for the fall in service levels at supermarkets and petrol bowsers. It is the same reason why nobody in the whole world runs a business whose core business is giving away iPhones for $20. Sure there would be plenty of customer demand. But who could supply any kind of volume at that price?’ That the 2010 Commerce Commission would change from simply doing the work of the Prices and Income Board to become the personal play-thing and score-settling tool of the vengeful Khaiyum was made clear in the text of the decree itself. Or as respected law firm Munro Leys headlined a briefing on the 2010 decree: ‘Mostly the same, more confusing, less to challenge’ Munro Leys had two particular concerns. One was the general sloppiness that many observers have noted is typical of Khaiyum decrees. In this instance he was acting both as Attorney-General and the Minister heading the Commerce Commission he was legislating to create. As Munro Leys wrote of the decree revealed for the first time on September 24 2010, ‘It is concerning that a Decree which has apparently been in force since 1 July is only made public 11 weeks later, without advance notice. One advantage of first consulting stakeholders is that at least someone proof-reads your work. The Decree demonstrates the dangers of “cut-and-paste drafting”. The result is many spelling, grammatical and cross-referencing errors and important legal issues left unclear.’ The second was also typical Khaiyum – putting himself as Minister, his Decree, and the operation, judgement, pricing determinations and penalties of his Commerce Commission above reproach, beyond judicial review and forever set in stone (even to survive the 2014 elections). 38A. - (1) No Court, tribunal, commission or any other adjudicating body shall have the jurisdiction, to accept, hear, determine or in any other way entertain, any challenges whatsoever (including any application for judicial review) by any person or body, or to award any compensation or grant any other remedy to any person or body, in relation to the validity or legality or propriety or any action or decision of the Minister or the Commerce Commission in making a Price Control Order under either section 39, 40, 44, 45 and Part 5A of the Decree or any action or decision resulting from making such an Order. (2) Any legal proceeding, appeal or application of any form whatsoever, seeking to challenge the validity or legality of a Price Control Order made under either section 39, 40, 44, 45 and Parts 5A of the Decree or any action or decision resulting from making such an Order shall wholly terminate immediately upon the commencement of this Decree, and a Certificate to that effect shall be issued by the Chief Registrar, tribunal, commission or other relevant adjudicating body to all parties to the proceeding or application. The impact of this ‘Infallibility clause’ was what most alarmed Munro Leys about the new Khaiyum legal vehicle which still to this day has the potential to control the price of pretty much anything, without any form of judicial oversight: ‘More concerning is the increasing number of Commission decisions that the Decree says may not be challenged. Public law decision-makers are far from infallible. People affected by their bad decisions should have legal redress. If not, the only way bad decisions can be changed is by lobbying for new decisions. The consequences for good governance are self-evident.’ In the case of Khaiyum and his meddling in the fuel market those warnings about good governance are all too prescient. The first two columns are the figures that appear in the Commerce Commission decree relating to the Suva and Lautoka conurbations – the country’s largest fuel retail market – and came into effect in December 2014. The remaining columns have been calculated by FijiLeaks (Margin in cents is calculated by Retail VIP minus Wholesale VIP; and Margin % is Margin in cents as a proportion of Retail Price VIP in percentage terms). NB. Fijileaks’ analysis across the past four years of Commerce Commission activities has focussed on the unleaded and diesel products (leaving to one side the other controlled segments of premixed/outboard and kerosene) as this constitute the vast majority of the market. The full December 2014 fuel order schedule can be downloaded below, and earlier orders from www.commcomm.gov.fj; http://www.commcomm.gov.fj/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Fuel-Order-Schedules-December-2014.pdf The public announcement of the rise in fuel margin of 3.78 and 3.99 percent for diesel and unleaded respectively was made to the public by Khaiyum, although Khaiyum himself is no longer the minister responsible for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism into which the Commerce Commission reports. Why was it Khaiyum who was talking to the media about a fuel order pricing determination of a supposedly independent statutory body under the responsibility of a different minister altogether? [The correct minister would have been Faiyaz Koya, the Lautoka lawyer who polled only 875 votes but still won a seat in Parliament.] That the Minister of Finance should still be meddling in the fuel market, well beyond his current ministerial brief, is directly linked to the Tappoo Group’s recent entrée into the Fiji fuel market and the kleptocracy at heart of the Bainimarama – Khaiyum regime. In September 2013 Tappoo Group took over from Carpenters the running of 16 Mobil-branded fuel stations. This acquisition took the controversial and regime-friendly Sigatoka-based company from nowhere to suddenly being Fiji’s biggest fuel distributor. Carpenters were giving up because, just as with BP Oil in 2008, government-mandated post-coup fuel margins had been too low for too long to make a reasonable commercial return. Carpenters’ decision brought an abrupt to an end more than 100 years of Mobil fuel being sold through Carpenters and Carpenters-owned Morris Hedstrom outlets around the country. At the time of the negotiations with Carpenters the fuel price orders set by the Commerce Commission were as below. Unlike in December 2014 when Khaiyum no longer had ministerial line responsibility for the Commerce Commission, these 2013 prices were recommended by the commissioners (handpicked by Khaiyum) to Khaiyum as the Minister, and he formally approved. Khaiyum’s willingness to trade favours for cash with the Tappoo Group (itself about as close in Fiji as the country gets to Goldman Sach’s ‘great vampire squid’) has already been well-documented in Fiji Leaks. The relationship is an ongoing saga of rewards and kickbacks but reached its highpoint in 2009 when the Tappoo Group – through their Bright Star Investments Ltd vehicle - paid a staggering $810,000 for Khaiyum’s $400,000-rated Berry Road property. Tappoo’s intervention, after Khaiyum had fallen well behind in his ANZ mortgage payments, saved the Attorney-General the embarrassment of a bankruptcy notice and the likely end of his political career. So when Tappoo’s negotiations to take over the 16 Mobil stations was finally completed and announced on September 29 2013, Khaiyum as the Minister in charge of the Commerce Commission, nodded through what was, to that point, a record increase in fuel retail margin. Just over two weeks’ later (October 14 2013), the government revealed a new fuel price order regime, announced by Khaiyum’s Commerce Commission. Between the two orders the margin on unleaded fuel was made to jump almost three-fifths of a percentage point on unleaded and one-fifth of a percentage point on diesel. Maybe not a spectacularly vast increase to the untrained eye, but consider this. 1. If you compare the pre-Tappoo October 2010 order, shown below, with the pre-Tappoo July 2013 order above – it took a total of 34 months for the Commerce Commission to agree to lift the margin on unleaded fuel from 2.25 percent to 2.48 (less than a quarter of a percent) and 1.84 percent to 2.52 (just over two-thirds of a percentage point). As soon as Tappoo enters the fuel market, it takes the Commerce Commission less than three weeks to pile on almost three-fifths of a percent to the margin on unleaded and a fifth of a percent for diesel. As you can see by contrasting the first Tappoo-friendly October 2013 order with the December 2014 order – after years of flat-lining, now the direction of the margins is headed only one way, and has accelerated through each subsequent order at a much steeper rate of increase than was ever provided since the Executive Authority Decree 2009 and in the years that followed the 2006 coup. 2. Consider this also. If there is any justification to having government setting retail prices, it is to protect the interest of the consumer. Yet the first Tappoo-friendly October 2013 order came at a time of rising global prices (so the effect of the new order was to lift the unleaded petrol retail price in Suva, Lautoka and Lami from $2.49 per litre to $2.62). It was at this painful time of spiking fuel prices that Khaiyum and Reddy gave Tappoo the first big boost to their margins, from 6.19 cents a litre to 8.1 cents. And what do all these small decimal point increases mean for a company like Tappoo, with the biggest fuel operation in the country? An industry that generates $550m in cash revenues a year (Fiji Fuel Retailers Association estimate) that has a margin of 2.25 percent, as in October 2010, will generate profit of $12.37m. But one that operates on a margin of 4 percent (December 2014 fuel order) makes $22m profit. So a 1.75 percent lift in margin can produce an extra almost-$10m profit across the industry – at the stroke of a friendly ministerial pen. Would Carpenters (and even BP Oil) have sold out to a regime-friendly company like Tappoo Group and ended more than a century of fuel supply to the Fiji consumer, if they had known the fuel margins would rise so significantly over the short term? What this means in practical terms today is as follows: a consumer filling his or her car with unleaded petrol in the Suva, Lautoka, Lami area in January 2015 is paying only $2.37 per litre at the pump because of falling global oil prices, but a rising 4 percent margin or 9.46 cents profit per litre because of Khaiyum’s willingness to hide a greater profit margin to Tappoo inside the supposed good news of cheaper fuel at the petrol station. Eighteen months earlier (and before Tappoo had entered the market) the purchase price was higher under the July 2013 fuel price order ($2.49 per litre) but the margin within that higher price was lower at 6.19 cents per litre or 2.48 percent. Yet for most of this government’s time in office, Khaiyum and his puppets in the Commerce Commission have energetically blocked any hint of a meaningful increase – even if this cost hundreds of jobs of the low-skilled workers whose employment opportunities are most limited in the struggling post-2006 coup economy. To understand how cynical Khaiyum has been with the fuel margin rate you only need to go back to the October 2010 fuel orders: That same month, October 2010, the Fiji Fuel Retail Association announced that, after almost four years of frustration dealing with the Khaiyum price regime, its member companies would be cutting 400 low-skilled jobs at 74 service stations across the country as the industry moved to self-service from attendant service. The FRRA said that its membership could not afford to pay for forecourt staff at government-set profit margins that were 1.84 percent for diesel and 2.25 for unleaded. "This is a major cost-cutting move by our members to ensure the survival of a vital local industry," Association president Baljeet Singh told the Fiji Times at the time. "We are victims of a price control system that is squeezing the life out of our businesses.” Unfortunately the FRRA was speaking the common-sense of hard facts and basic economics – about which the statist, anti-business Khaiyum knows little and cares for even less. Only when self-interest raises its head - see FBC vs Fiji TV, One Hundred Sands Ltd, Tappoo’s fuel company etc., - is Khaiyum ready to act, long after the 400 jobs have been lost and the irreversible process of automation begun, and only then using money picked from the pockets of Fiji’s most hard-pressed to help his rich pals. Fijileaks to former Vice Chancellor Mahendra Kumar: Answer Our E-mail! Fijileaks: We are determined to expose Indo-Fijian academics who not only "fed" off the treasonous 2006 coup but "sexually" abused their positions while hiding behind the petticoat of academic respectability! DISGRACEFUL MALE CHAUVINIST: "My office (the Permanent Secretary’s) was broken into on 21st December 2014. The Police came and took the reports. Nothing was damaged except for the two laptops and the desk top computer was interfered with. The desk top screen had two pads (mensuration) pasted on the screen with vulgar words. The Assistant Ministers office adjacent to mine with the connecting door was safe with no interference. The laptop was carried out of the office and thrown some distance away. Obviously someone was searching for information. I went up to his office and reported to the Minister who merely laughed it off." Mrs Kumar to Pio Tikoduadua In some cases the Bainimarama/Khaiyum regime turned a blind eye to the victims, for the perpetrators were close relatives and friends of the former FNU VC Ganesh Chand, the regime's 'Golden Boy'! CAUGHT IN THE ACT: FNU's Director of Finance and Human Resources Narendra Prasad was not very resourceful; his wife had caught him red-handed with his pants down with another woman at a USP bash!
LABOUR leader and former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his wife were this morning (8 January) stopped from travelling overseas on their diplomatic passports. Mr Chaudhry maintains he should be entitled to a diplomatic passport as a privilege accorded to former prime ministers. Mr and Mrs Chaudhry were issued diplomatic passports in May 1999 when he was elected prime minister and have ever since used it for their travels. In a statement issued after the morning’s debacle, Mr Chaudhry said: “I was informed by the Manager Immigration at Nadi Airport that they had been instructed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to confiscate our diplomatic passports as I was no longer a Minister and that this was a new policy. I then contacted the Director of Immigration Mr Nemani Vuniwaqa who was sympathetic but said he was unable to assist as he was under orders to seize our passports. I find the reasons now advanced by the officials unacceptable considering that I had notified both the Permanent Secretary for Defence, National Security and Immigration and Director Immigration in writing on 15 December 2014 of my intended travel and requested their facilitation. The Permanent Secretary replied the next day saying that they were liaising with the Director Immigration to facilitate my request. I was therefore, surprised at the new turn of events this morning as no one had ever before raised the issue of the use of diplomatic passports by us. I think there is more to it than the use of diplomatic passports. If such were indeed the case, common courtesy would have dictated that we be informed of this new policy with a request to return the passports. This was not done. We were led to believe that our travel would be facilitated and then the blow was struck just before we were due to board the aircraft. But again, in the first instance the Assistant Immigration Officer told me that I had been cleared to travel but that Mrs Chaudhry’s travel would have to be cleared by his superior officer. We waited for almost 30 minutes before being advised that both of us could not travel on our diplomatic passports which they had instructions to confiscate from us. I don’t know what games they are playing but it will certainly not deter me from getting to the bottom of this matter,” Mr Chaudhry said. Fijileaks: We know how it feels to be humiliated by DICTATORSHIP! Russell Hunter had only $20 in his pocket and the clothes on his back! These former Government colleagues of yours don't give a damn whether one has $20 on him or $2million in one's bank account! He was deported on board flight FJ 911 to Sydney and you were unceremoniously off-loaded from flight FJ 911 and left behind with your luggage at Nadi airport!
Its 2015 and the Chief Justice of Fiji can't find a magistrate or even a special magistrate to hear Bala's death by dangerous driving case! Letter to the Editor, Fiji Times, re Shirley Park
"Your assumption Mr Mohammed Abid (Sacramento US) that the Lautoka ratepayers are probably barking up the wrong tree and not getting a reply to Shirley Park because "the current Minister may be the one who made the deal" may be closer to the truth than what most would like to put down in print. That version of events is an open secret here and is why I, who put that petition together and the Lautoka Residents and Ratepayers Association persist in wanting answers and knowing that proper procedure has been followed in giving away one third of a park that has value and meaning to the people of Lautoka." Maude Elbourne Lautoka Let the truth prevail: Basundra welcomes investigation
Former acting Permanent Secretary Basundra Kumar says it is her "first victory" and "justice is now coming my way" as she welcomed the Fijian Government's decision to accept her request to withdraw her resignation and investigate her on allegations of breach of the Public Service Code. She has also called on the Public Service Commission (PSC) to handle the investigation and keep the Ministry of Education out of it voicing fears of possible manipulation by the ministry. "Let the truth prevail," Kumar said. In a release issued today about the decision to accept Kumar's request, the Fijian Government had said her successor, Kelera Taloga will make the final decision based on the investigation committee's recommendation, but Kumar says "it must not go to her." "She is still working under under the Minister," Kumar said. "The Ministry of Education should not be involved. I want the Minister of PSC to receive and handle the report. I would also want the [school] saga to be opened and everyone who was called up to give a report be called up again. "I welcome the move. I have given 26 years of my loyal service, and then for someone to say that I'm done and dusted with no respect for the years of service I have given, I was shattered." Kumar says allegations made against her follows a phone call she made to a department head of a school near Nausori which her daughter attended as a Year 13 student last year to voice her concerns about the students' Maths mark including her daughter's who had failed her Math exam, days leading up to the Year 13 external exams. She explained her daughter had informed her that a substitute teacher that had taken over her Math class had told students she had no subject knowledge. "I called the HOD to tell him that he was not doing his duty to monitor the performance of teachers' and report on it and for having delegated classes to a person who was incapable to do the work." "Little did I know, the phone conversation was recorded and later circulated around." Kumar maintained she was executing her powers as Acting PS of Education to arrest the problem not only for her daughter's sake but for other students taught by the substitute teacher. "I can afford to put my daughter into tutorial. In fact she is, but what about the rest of the students affected. Must they suffer the same. I was carrying out my duties as Acting PS and as a parent. "There is nothing wrong there." Kumar also voiced her disappointment there was no formal word relayed to her on today's decision. "I had to find out through the media. When they decided to suspend me, there were at my house within half-an-hour to deliver a letter informing me that I had been indefinitely suspended for something that had happened three months earlier. "I can't understand why they cannot do the same when they made the decision to accept my request." Kumar says as per her contract as acting PS, if she resigns, she has a 30-day notice window which means she stays on till January 29 this year. She said she resigned under duress. Meanwhile, in the statement, the Fijian Government said it would not make further comment on the issue to allow for the investigation to take its course. Any further comment will await a final decision to be made at the conclusion of the investigation. Read more at: http://fijilive.com/news/2015/01/let-the-truth-prevail-basundra-welcomes-investigation/60224.Fijilive DISGRACEFUL MALE CHAUVINIST: "My office (the Permanent Secretary’s) was broken into on 21st December 2014. The Police came and took the reports. Nothing was damaged except for the two laptops and the desk top computer was interfered with. The desk top screen had two pads (mensuration) pasted on the screen with vulgar words. The Assistant Ministers office adjacent to mine with the connecting door was safe with no interference. The laptop was carried out of the office and thrown some distance away. Obviously someone was searching for information. I went up to his office and reported to the Minister who merely laughed it off." Mrs Kumar to Pio Tikoduadua He should not have been allowed to comment on Kumar's case, for he was accused of behaving like a bully at the Ministry; in fact, he should have been asked to step aside for inquiry into his own misconduct! Also, Kumar should have neutral team outside the Education Ministry to investigate her conduct STATEMENT FROM THE FIJIAN GOVERNMENT: RE KUMAR'S RESIGNATION WITHDRAWN FOR INQUIRY!
The Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts has agreed to accept Ms Basundra Kumar, Deputy Secretary Primary/Secondary’s request to withdraw her letter of resignation to allow for necessary investigation to be carried out by a Committee on the allegations made against her in a Ministry of Education report. As such, Ms. Kumar will remain on suspension pending investigation. The Investigation Committee consists of Mr. Ropate Green, State Solicitor (chairperson); Ms. Kelera Vakaloloma, Deputy Secretary (member); and Mr. Krishna Prasad, Deputy Secretary (member). The Investigation Committee will investigate the allegations and provide an opportunity to Ms. Kumar to provide her response to the allegations. Thereafter, the Investigation Committee will make its findings on any breach by Ms. Kumar of the Public Service Code of Conduct or any other terms and conditions including her contract of employment, and will make its recommendations to the Acting Permanent Secretary, who will then decide, what action, if any, is to be taken. Given the appointment of the Investigation Committee and to allow for an independent assessment, no further statements will be made on this matter by the Ministry until a decision is made after the conclusion of the independent investigation. Basundra Kumar punished for telling the truth about Mahendra Reddy's performance as Education Minister; now media employed to besmirch her character to save Reddy! 1/1/2015 IN –CONFIDENCE The Honorable Minister Head of Government in Parliament Honorable Tikoduadua RE: MATTERS OF CONCERN IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION Dear Sir Thank you for your immediate response on my request to raise some issues of concern in the Ministry of Education. You have asked me to summarize these issues. The following are some matters of concern: 1. Introduction As a senior civil servant and the acting Permanent Secretary of Education I am duty bound with a deep allegiance to the Banimarama government, to bring to your attention some issues of concern which has the potential to bring disrepute to the government. I have sought audience with the Prime Minister and with the Minister of Public Service but to date I have had no response. The issues I have to raise have largely to do with the Minister for Education. At the outset let me point out that I have no personal grudges against the Minister. My concerns are purely professional and are intended to save guard the credibility and the integrity of the present government. The concerns can be categorized under three major headings but you may find that the issues covered under these headings may overlap boundaries of categorization. 2. Breach of Civil Service procedures, Parochialism, Cronyism and Favoritism Soon after the appointment of the Minister, he established several positions in the Accounts section, disbanded the Executive support unit and established an investigation unit which later became part of the Ethics committee. He set a new salary scale for all new appointees. The new appointees are his people either from FNU or Commerce commission or teachers who have been his campaigners during the election. This is widely known and seen to be an act of nepotism. · Dharemendra Dayal a teacher from Rishikul College brought in to act as education officer ED4B. ( this appointment was reverted by me to regularize the position after the public outcry) · Yogesh Krishna a teacher from Amhadiya Muslim College brought in to act as Education Officer ED4B. ( this appointment was reverted by me to regularize the position after the public outcry) · Evelyn Sami an administrative officer from FNU and his Secretary whilst he was the Dean at FNU. He chose to jump her from the salary scale step 2 to step 8 which is very irregular for civil service appointments. (when HR section issued her a contract with step 2 salary, Eroni was threatened for termination in the full staff meeting. Rightfully she should have been appointed at the base salary of $22000 but she is receiving the step 8 salary at $28000. Our existing staff of the same grade are still struggling at the base salary and there is gossiping and bickering on the issue. · Nikita Natasha Reddy was a temporary staff at Commerce Commission and was brought in as a research officer in our statistics unit. Position was created for her after de-establishing a very important post of the Principal Education Officer –Eastern. The district now has no PEO post and it is affecting the service delivery. The Divisional Education Officer is complaining as it is affecting the district transfers and others responsibilities allocated with post. · Krishneel Sami was a temporary clerk at Bureau of Statistics and he has been appointed against our officers who had the merit and were acting on the post. I wasn’t aware that he was Evelyn Sami (Ministers’ EOS’ Brother until the information surfaced from FTA). One of our own TRCO (Kushal) who had the same qualification raised his concern by making a comparison. He was ordered for termination/ a transfer. He remains with us but in a different section. This is seen to be an obvious case of intimidation, suppression and victimization. · A former employee of Commerce Commission, Donish Lal has been appointed as a Principal Accounts Officer, believed to be appointed on a Taylor made advertisement. We were not aware of this person till he began demanding for a $50,000 salary scale. A second PAO position was created to allow for his nominee. NOTE There is a Human Resource Development Plan under which the Ministry’s succession plan is based. Our officers see this as their career path and line of promotion. We as the employers are duty bound to provide them the training and prepare them for the next position. Our officers who have already done their service exams and have the necessary experience were acting on the posts of responsibilities but they have been reverted to lower posts to make way for his people. My staff have been running to me looking to rescue them. I was helpless as the instructions were from the Minister. There is a lot of internal bickering and gossip making about the minister doing injustice. The Minister was directly liaising with Eroni our HR personnel until I pointed out to him (Eroni) that under section 127 of the Constitution the PS had the authority. The constitution is interpreted by the Minister as giving him all the powers. 3. Appointment at Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) The requirement is for all CDU officers to have the teacher training with relevant degree but the Minister changed it himself to a Masters Qualification in the respective subjects without any teacher training. His emphasis is that we have to dictate to the Universities what we need in their modules but the CDU is to make curriculum for our schools and those working must have the practical experience to understand the needs. He has already appointed people of his choice and most of them are from outside the teaching fraternity. As the Permanent Secretary, I have no knowledge of the promoted officers till today because the day these promotions took place majority of us were out of office attending to schools prize giving. The Minister himself chaired all the promotion board meetings. This is seen to be in conflict as the Minister is expected to play a political role only and to oversee the implementation of those policies. 4. Changing the Minimum Qualification Requirement (MQR) The MQR is a legal document and it gets challenged in the Court of Law by way of judicial review. The Minister decided to change it for the posts which were already advertised in June under the old MQR. The consultation processes were not adhered to procedurally and my fear is that if gets challenged in the court we could lose the cases. We have not sought advice and endorsement from the Solicitor General’s Office on the implementation of a new matrix/ MQR. The Minister used inexperienced and junior teachers to make the matrix. The section head from the Post Processing Unit Mrs.Rose Chand was threatened for a transfer and termination when she started to advice. Rose is an efficient and high performing officer in our Ministry and knows the job well. The independence of the post processing unit is no longer the same. 5. The restructuring of the government departments The Prime Minister has announced that the re-structure of the government departments will be done by the World Bank with the actual process to be implemented in 2016 with a thorough consultation to begin next year. The Minister has already started it at our Ministry without a holistic understanding of the entire civil service which the World Bank would have done. The Minister has already announced the following: · There will be no Deputy Secretaries (the Deputy Secretary Corporate Services fell vacant after the post holder retired in June. Mr. Sulasi Turgabeci was acting and now he has gone on pre-retirement leave but the Minister has asked not to appoint anyone to act on the established post) · There will be no Divisional Education Officers (we have 4 posts, 2 are now vacant due to resignations and retirement, the DEO-Central has resigned to join AQEP and the DEO-North who was due to retire in February has resigned to join FNU. The DEO-West has been sent on leave awaiting his termination for no crime by him. There are no leaders/ divisional heads in 3 divisions. He has ordered these will not be filled. · There will be no Principal Education officers in the Districts. I requested him to allow them acting till 31st December 2014 after which they will be going away to schools. The Principal Education Officers posts were advertised and PPU was ready with schedule for interviews and processing, the Minister has asked that all that be put to rest. · Our post processing unit has always been an independent section. They would receive applications and draw up the schedule. These schedules will only be accessed by the senior staff (Directors and above) to discuss and process the vacancies, The PPUS’ role is now being interfered with by the inclusion of the Ministers nominees who are junior staff. Post Processing requires administrative duties but recently a post has been advertised (Taylor made for his choice). NOTE – this has already begun to de-stabilize the Ministry of education. 6. Termination, without due processes, intimidation and harassment Some school teachers have been terminated and suspended without following the due disciplinary processes of the government. The terminated teachers have taken the matter to court and my advise to the Minister was to follow the due process which was ignored. · Mr, Sulasi Turagabeci acting DSCS raised in a staff briefing the Minister’s unbecoming actions and decisions. There was long discussion but his suggestions were not taken well by the Minister. He also made comments about the Minister at the Education Forum but he was stopped by the chair. The pain and anguish of the staff was brought to the members of the forum but their frustration needs to be understood. · Lorima Voravora a very senior officer and Divisional Education Officer West was not happy with the manner in which a teacher was terminated by the Minister in early October. He raised his concern about the government’s disciplinary process and asked if the procedures had changed. He had emailed it in to some Principals and Head teachers asking that advise be provided to the leaders. The Minister wasn’t happy and ordered that he be terminated. I had to send Lorima on leave pending the advice by the Solicitor General’s Office · Satya Nand Shandil the Divisional Education Officer North (with a masters qualification) only provided his advise in writing on a Head Teachers case in Labasa. The Minister ordered that the head teacher be transferred and demoted because he had some heated arguments with him whilst he was campaigning in North. The Minister made everything unworkable for Shandil. I was asked by the Minister to get him to resign. Disheartened and unhappy, Shandil found a job at FNU and resigned last month. · Mrs. Lusiana Fotofilli the Director Exams with masters qualification in evaluation which is right qualifications for the post. her area spoke at one of the senior staff meetings and said that the Ministers leadership was scary and that the staffs were feeling insecure has been transferred from the Exams section to the culture department. She is contesting her unceremonious removal. She was trained by the ministry for the post. Money was spent on her overseas training. · Seci Waqabaca has a master’s qualification in curriculum and was acting as Director CAS (Curriculum Advisory Section) has been removed from his position because he was in the team doing the cabinet paper on the removal of the scaling in external examination. They provided an alternate to scaling stating that it is a national issue and has to be treaded on carefully. I was asked by the Minister to revert him from his acting position and transfer him to Nausori Education office. · Seruppepeli Udre the Acting Divisional Education Officer Central is a very committed and dedicated officer of our Ministry. He was the most meritorious officer for the post and would have been confirmed on it. Minister stopped the processing stating that the post will be de-established. Udre show a bleak future for himself in the Ministry so he resigned to join AQEP. · Mr. Narain Sharma was acting PEO- Primary and was an excellent unit. The Minister openly and blatantly accused him of planning a mutiny against him with the Head teachers. Sharma gracefully resigned and has joined AQEP. · Saimoni Waibuta Director Asset Monitoring Unit and the acting Deputy Secretary was asked to be reverted to his post even though he was acting on my post. I wrote to explain to him the HR policy of our ministry that someone should act on a temporary vacancy. He was extended till 31st December but his morale and self-esteem fell. He came to me on several occasions and asked me to inform the higher authorities of the wrong in our ministry. I continued to console my staff because I knew without them I couldn’t function. · Jai Narayan the Director Secondary education is looking exhausted with the excessive pressure. The Minister finds that Jai Narayan meets the deadline through sacrifice of his personal time so he is loaded with work. Jai discuses with me as his supervisor and tells me that one day he will push the table upside down and walk away. He asked me for mercy. I rang the PS-PSC, the Prime Minister’s office and spoke to Kisoko and the PS-PMO and verbally asked them for advise. NOTE The Minister blatantly intimidates senior officers and if he sees an element of explanation, suggestion or advice to revisit the Ministers decision, he orders for termination or transfer. 7. Disregard for Cabinet collective decision and unilateral decision making To introduce the policies announced in the manifesto is the prerogative of the government and all staff are supportive of the reforms. Where the policies are not in the manifesto and were introduced by the previous Bainimarama government would require re-endorsement of the cabinet. Otherwise some radical reforms in contradiction to the policies of the previous government could prove embarrassing. The duty of the civil servant is to ensure that the present government does not face any embarrassment. The manner in which the reforms have been announced in our Ministry is alarming and some in breach of accepted protocol. The following reforms were announced: · Re-claiming the teachers (returning to the core functions of the teacher) · Reducing the teacher work load by 60% · Reducing the teacher pupil ratio · Opening of Technical colleges · Re-introducing exams in year 6 & 10 · Standardizing exams in years 7,8,9 and 11 · Review the curriculum · Distribution of milk to class 1 students · Removal scaling of marks · 2.5 GPA for teacher recruitment · Experienced and trained teachers for year one · Closing of tvet centers in various secondary schools Except for the opening of the Technical Colleges and the distribution of the milk, all other matters are outside the manifesto and would protocol wise require cabinet collective decision. In normal circumstances two types of cabinet papers are prepared, one for information and the other for discussion and approval. We have informed the Minister that the government machinery requires cabinet decisions and papers are to be prepared which requires planning, research and consultations. He gives one day timeframe to write and present to him a cabinet paper. This is impossible and I understand the other work pressures that my staff endure but for the Minister it is inability and poor performance. The Director working on the Technical paper has been keeping herself in the office till very late but couldn’t finish and submit the paper due to the requirement from the Solicitor General’s office. He is seeing this as non – cooperation and not supporting his reforms. The re-introduction of examinations - The abolishment of examination was concerted policy of the previous Bainimarama government. The advise to take the new policy to cabinet was not taken very well. I explained and produced to him a cabinet paper of 2009 for the abolishment of the exams by the same government. The decision that exams will be re-introduced has been formalized without the cabinet endorsement. The Minister felt I was sabotaging his reform. The Minister wanted to immediately remove the scaling system and give out raw marks for year 12 and 13 external examinations. We were invited to the press conference which was abruptly called on a Sunday. I advised him that it was a political decision implemented in 1978 and we can’t announce the removal without a cabinet decision. The Director Exams Luisa Fotofilli also expressed her view stating it was an internationally tested formula and we will have to follow procedures angered him. He made up his mind that we were not supporting him. The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) was approved by the Cabinet in 2012 and it is being piloted in schools. The Minister has asked that it be put on hold. I as an experience teacher see a lot of difficulties with the reduction of teacher load, without a commensurate increase in schools staffing to manage the administrative load. Teachers need to know their student’s very well thus some administrative duty is a must. The teachers’ terms and conditions are different from other civil servants because their extra work is accounted for and they enjoy a lot of holidays with the children. However, Minister still wants them freed from administrative responsibilities. He hasn’t consulted me or the staff for our inputs as we would have advised him that it is in the process of training them for the leadership roles. 8. Non-participative, self-accrediting micro-management style – undermining collegiality, quality and productivity The Minister has been with us for more than 3 months and till today he has not shown any appreciation for the work done at the Ministry. He has publicly rubbished the good work done by our predecessors and the existing staff. He shows no respect to any senior staff. Most of us have been ridiculed in front the school managements and outsiders. At one particular Senior Management meeting he openly and vehemently accused me of doing nepotism and favoritism. This allegation was wild and unsubstantiated and it caused restlessness in staff as they witnessed no respect by the Minister for the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Education. The Minister is a micro-manager. This delays service delivery and leads to duplication of duties. For example he wants to himself approve the transfers, teacher appointments, promotions and everything that is happening in the Ministry. We have 10,300 teachers, 735 Primary schools, 178 Secondary schools and 17 special schools. We have Deputy Secretaries and Directors to manage these duties with their staff. Every senior manager has their position description and they are accountable for their roles thus unwarranted interference in their duties is seen as undermining their job description, lack of trust, poor customer service and delayed service delivery. The Deputies and the Directors are demoralized with loss of respect for their positions and themselves. The Minister has changed the name of the meetings that were taking place in the Ministry from the senior staff meeting (SSM) to (SMG) senior management meeting which is a borrowed concept from FNU. This has brought about disruptions in our operations as there used to be two meetings and well scheduled one for the Minister where the policies were made and endorsed by the Minister together with the cabinet papers presented and discussed thoroughly before being taken to the cabinet. It used to be very professional, well organized and well conducted with high respect being accorded to all the senior staff. This would then follow the Permanent Secretarys meeting where ministry’s operational and the policy matters would be discussed in a dignified and professional manner. Under the new leadership the staff have forgotten their roles. Meetings are called on ad hoc basis and the Minister reaches out to the senior staff without following protocols. Under a Parliamentary and a cabinet system the Minister deals with policy issues and ensures that the political promises made by the government of the day are carried out. The decisions that have budgetary implications have to be provided for in the budget before public money can be utilized. Little regard is paid to this essential feature of accountability. The cases of apparent cronyism and favoritism have already been pointed out earlier. There has already been public outcry on some of these issues. The Minister has never met me alone to discuss the way forward for this Ministry. His executive officer sitting beside him all the time keeps a recorder on. Everybody including me as the acting PS have not been able to share openly our concerns, suggestions and views. Dealing with school management The school managements who have sought audience with him regarding appointment of their school heads have gone out sad and dissatisfied. Our schools are private –public partnership and we have noted that the non-government schools are doing very well. The school managements have spent their time through voluntary services to provide this great service to the nation. They deserve our appreciation. School investigations The Bhawani Dayal Arya College investigations proved that the Principal had committed a criminal offence. The teachers who gave evidences against the Principal were transferred out by the Minister and the Principal was returned to the school to complete the year and retire. As a Minister he should have reported the matter to Police but he chose to conceal a crime. The Principal is a known friend of the Minister. He has aided and abetted a perpetrator. Personal Vendetta The Minister was making a case against me because I had spoken to a head of department and advised him to play a stronger supervisory role. The students were suffering including my own daughter because of a poor math’s teacher. The Minister entertained a CD being made and put to circulation. He wanted to use the same case to discipline me. His good boys went around gossiping about it in their circles stating the Minister had taken away all the powers from me. My office (the Permanent Secretary’s) was broken into on 21st December 2014. The Police came and took the reports. Nothing was damaged except for the two laptops and the desk top computer was interfered with. The desk top screen had two pads (mensuration) pasted on the screen with vulgar words. The Assistant Ministers office adjacent to mine with the connecting door was safe with no interference. The laptop was carried out of the office and thrown some distance away. Obviously someone was searching for information. I went up to his office and reported to the Minister who merely laughed it off. Staff Morale The Minister wrote to the Minister of Public Service explaining a case against one of my relatives. He wrote without any investigation and discussion with me stating that I had “over exercised my power as the acting PS”. This was all fabricated and misleading information disseminated to another Minister on me. The officer who had been reverted from his acting position to substantive grade was promoted in 2010 under the leadership of the former PS Dr. Brij Lal. The staff morale at the Ministry is very low and everybody is frightened to say or do any work. The senior staffs have been quietly taking leave and staying away from work. We have to fulfill major initiatives like the milk delivery, opening of Technical Colleges in 2015. I strongly feel that qualification alone cannot replace experience. We need both. Our existing staff have worked hard to earn them the position and they need to be accorded respect and dignity. We have to bring back life in them and use their expertise to run this large Ministry. Termination, suspension and sending officers on leave is no answer to this silent protest by our officers, this is bringing a bad name to the government. The Minister had announced an Education Commission but there is no budgetary provision. An Education Commission would have provided a more holistic view on desirable reforms to be introduced. The Minister is an academic and his experience is related to University Teaching. He has come in with a pre-conceived idea that this Ministry is hopeless and people have not been working. This seriously undermines the morale of the staff. He fails to realize that the Ministry has implemented 75 reforms out of which 42 are ongoing and the rest have been completed in the last 8 years introduced by the Banimarama government. The dissatisfaction by the teachers has led to the Fijian Teachers Association filing a writ against our processors. The questions are targeted at me for not being able to assist the teachers. Conclusion I have been unceremoniously asked to revert to the position of Deputy Secretary. I am aware that there are differences of approach between the Minister and me but these are not irreconcilable. My concerns are professional. There is nothing personal. My plea is that I be allowed to stay on in office until a substantive appointment is made or alternatively I be transferred to a suitable Ministry. I am also an applicant for diplomatic positions. A summary decision to revert me to my previous position will undermine my promotional prospects. I hope common sense will prevail. Sir, I still seek an audience with you to explain many other issues that I have not captured in this mail. Yours Obediently Basundra Kumar (Mrs.) |
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