"Fijileaks: Why USP Council did not call in Fiji Police on BDO Report?
"When the annual report of the Auditor-General for each Ministry or Department or a Statutory Organization is tabled in Parliament and then referred to the Public Accounts Committee for its consideration, the Committee after deliberating on the report would normally report back to Parliament endorsing or proposing an alternative on the recommendations of the Auditor General.
Where the Auditor-General reports that the PS of a Ministry or any of his authorized officers have committed serious breaches of the Finance Regulations or the Finance Management Act which in his view are criminal in nature, the Auditor-General would normally recommend that such breaches be referred to the Police for investigations and prosecutions, if appropriate. Once the PAC and Parliament endorse such recommendations, the matter is then formally handed to the Police to deal with expeditiously.
We are somewhat baffled as to why the USP Council, in light of the 2019 BDO Report into the mismanagement and corruption at USP which the Nauru President told the Nauru Parliament last week “showed clear violations of university rules, unethical conduct, and gross financial mismanagement by the previous university administration” has not found it appropriate to refer the BDO Report to the Fiji Police for urgent investigations, especially since Fiji is the host country for the regional institution.
Since NZ and Australia are the largest donors and are members of the Council, they should be requested to assist the Fiji police with appropriate expertise and resources to ensure the investigations (and prosecutions) are carried out competently and expeditiously. The Council might also wish to seek the assistance of the SG of the PIF
in this regard."
From Fijileaks Archives:
