*As Biman Prasad delivers the budget, every line he reads, every tax he announces, and every dollar he allocates will carry the stench of unresolved fraud. The people of Fiji are being asked to trust a man with the national purse whose own declarations cannot withstand basic scrutiny.
| ELEVEN years ago, in 2014, Biman Prasad entered Fiji’s Parliament on the back of false statutory declarations—a deceit that would have disqualified any ordinary citizen, civil servant, or candidate under the law. Today, he stands at the dispatch box, preparing to deliver the national budget as Minister for Finance. There are many words for this kind of trajectory: shameless, cynical, disgraceful. But the most painful word is this: unaccountable. |  |
The same man who once withheld material facts from his electoral declaration—including his business interests, his wife’s property holdings, and the true value of his personal assets—is now entrusted with managing billions in public funds. He is not standing trial. He is standing before the nation, presiding over the fiscal future of a country he once deceived to gain power.
And worse still, his party—the National Federation Party—remains silent.
The Price of Power Cannot Be the Truth
Let us not mince words: this is not a clerical error or a forgotten signature. This is a sustained and deliberate failure to disclose, going back to Prasad’s original declaration in 2014 and repeated over two elections.
If a civil servant had lied in a statutory declaration, they would have been terminated. If a candidate from a less protected party had done the same, they would have been prosecuted under the Political Parties Act or the Electoral Act. But Biman Prasad? He gets promoted. Protected. Painted as a pillar of reform.
This is not justice. It is hypocrisy in a suit.
And what of his colleagues—the NFP MPs who sit beside him in Cabinet, who brand themselves as voices of reason and integrity?
Their silence is complicity.
Not one of them has demanded an internal review. Not one has stood up in Parliament or before the public and asked why a man with a proven record of false declarations should be allowed to oversee the national accounts.
Have they abandoned the NFP’s historic legacy of clean politics and principled opposition? Or have they simply decided that truth is negotiable if your party is in the coalition government?
A Budget Stained Before It Begins
As Biman Prasad delivers the budget, every line he reads, every tax he announces, and every dollar he allocates will carry the stench of unresolved fraud. The people of Fiji are being asked to trust a man with the national purse whose own declarations cannot withstand basic scrutiny.
And so we ask: Why are NFP members not demanding accountability from their own leader? The answer lies in a bitter truth: Fiji’s political class has become adept at enforcing accountability for others—but not for themselves.
The Long Arc of Deceit
Biman Prasad had 15 years to come clean. He never did. And now, with the machinery of the government behind him, he thinks he never will—unless FICAC charges him.
Let it be remembered that the budget he delivers is not merely a financial document. It is a moral statement. And when it is read aloud in Parliament today, it will echo not just with figures, but with the silence of his party, the apathy of oversight institutions, and the buried truths of a man who chose power over honesty.
Integrity doesn’t age well in the absence of courage. And neither does the NFP
Rabuka’s Silence Is a Green Light for Corruption
For a man who came to office promising a break from the authoritarianism and abuse of the Bainimarama years, Rabuka’s unwillingness to act on the COI’s findings is a betrayal of his own legacy. He behaves as if Prasad’s continued presence in Cabinet is a minor irritant rather than a constitutional crisis.
No matter what numbers Biman Prasad delivers today Fiji’s moral ledger is in deficit. A budget read by a man who entered office on lies, protected by a FICAC chief who closed her eyes, and tolerated by a Prime Minister too timid to act, cannot claim legitimacy.
Until his file is re-opened, until he is arrested and charged, until accountability is enforced, every dollar allocated under by Biman Prasad will be stained with impunity.
And worse still, his party—the National Federation Party—remains silent.
The Price of Power Cannot Be the Truth
Let us not mince words: this is not a clerical error or a forgotten signature. This is a sustained and deliberate failure to disclose, going back to Prasad’s original declaration in 2014 and repeated over two elections.
If a civil servant had lied in a statutory declaration, they would have been terminated. If a candidate from a less protected party had done the same, they would have been prosecuted under the Political Parties Act or the Electoral Act. But Biman Prasad? He gets promoted. Protected. Painted as a pillar of reform.
This is not justice. It is hypocrisy in a suit.
And what of his colleagues—the NFP MPs who sit beside him in Cabinet, who brand themselves as voices of reason and integrity?
Their silence is complicity.
Not one of them has demanded an internal review. Not one has stood up in Parliament or before the public and asked why a man with a proven record of false declarations should be allowed to oversee the national accounts.
Have they abandoned the NFP’s historic legacy of clean politics and principled opposition? Or have they simply decided that truth is negotiable if your party is in the coalition government?
A Budget Stained Before It Begins
As Biman Prasad delivers the budget, every line he reads, every tax he announces, and every dollar he allocates will carry the stench of unresolved fraud. The people of Fiji are being asked to trust a man with the national purse whose own declarations cannot withstand basic scrutiny.
And so we ask: Why are NFP members not demanding accountability from their own leader? The answer lies in a bitter truth: Fiji’s political class has become adept at enforcing accountability for others—but not for themselves.
The Long Arc of Deceit
Biman Prasad had 15 years to come clean. He never did. And now, with the machinery of the government behind him, he thinks he never will—unless FICAC charges him.
Let it be remembered that the budget he delivers is not merely a financial document. It is a moral statement. And when it is read aloud in Parliament today, it will echo not just with figures, but with the silence of his party, the apathy of oversight institutions, and the buried truths of a man who chose power over honesty.
Integrity doesn’t age well in the absence of courage. And neither does the NFP
Rabuka’s Silence Is a Green Light for Corruption
For a man who came to office promising a break from the authoritarianism and abuse of the Bainimarama years, Rabuka’s unwillingness to act on the COI’s findings is a betrayal of his own legacy. He behaves as if Prasad’s continued presence in Cabinet is a minor irritant rather than a constitutional crisis.
No matter what numbers Biman Prasad delivers today Fiji’s moral ledger is in deficit. A budget read by a man who entered office on lies, protected by a FICAC chief who closed her eyes, and tolerated by a Prime Minister too timid to act, cannot claim legitimacy.
Until his file is re-opened, until he is arrested and charged, until accountability is enforced, every dollar allocated under by Biman Prasad will be stained with impunity.
