*The Fijian Voters thought they were getting an academic leader. It turns out the only thing active was the NFP campaign spin machine
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 *September 2022 Election Campaign: |   |
 Ganesh Chand |  Anand Chand |  Nadesa Goundar |
BIMAN PRASAD's residential home? In March 1997, FIAS registered its office at Sekoula Road, Laucala Beach Estate, Suva, Fiji
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Biman Prasad Director of an Institute That Died Mid-Election Year
The National Federation Party loves to preach transparency and accountability. But when it comes to its own backyard, suddenly the facts get flexible.
During the 2022 elections, NFP marketed its leader, Professor Biman Prasad, as the “Director of the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies” (FIAS). Sounds academic, legitimate, and respectable - exactly the kind of intellectual polish a party wants on its campaign brochure.
Except there’s a small problem.
FIAS was formally cancelled on 26 January 2022.
That’s right. It was in the same year Prasad was touting the title to voters, the entity was quietly erased from the charitable trusts register. So while Fiji went to the polls believing Prasad was helming an active institution, public records were busy pulling the plug.
To recap:
So, what was FIAS in 2022?
A functioning trust?
A dissolved shell?
Or an election prop that conveniently disappeared once scrutiny arrived?
Either way, the timeline does not flatter the NFP leader’s narrative.
If FIAS had effectively ceased operations before or by January 2022, then advertising oneself as its Director during the campaign is misleading at best.
If FIAS was still active up to cancellation, then why was the role not declared in the mandatory filings? The Political Parties Act does not provide exemptions for “inconvenient positions”.
And if FIAS deliberately shut down right as elections approached - well, that raises another set of questions entirely.
What voters were shown and what the register shows cannot be reconciled with a straight face.
Yet this is the same party that positions itself as the moral compass of Fiji’s politics. The same leader who chides others for “lack of transparency”.
It seems accountability is much easier to demand than to practise.
So here we are:
The Fiji Institute of Applied Studies may have breathed its last breath in January 2022, but the National Federation Party’s Institute of Political Fairy Tales continued its cheerful work.
And the lesson?
You don’t need a PhD in economics to know that voters deserved the truth. Not a disappearing act.
Based on the documentary evidence shown, there may be grounds to investigate a potential false representation under the Political Parties Act and/or ethical misrepresentation to voters.
In politics, credibility is currency. And during Fiji’s 2022 general election, Biman Prasad, leader of the National Federation Party (NFP) and later Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, traded heavily on his role as a respected academic and economist.
To seal his appeal, he flaunted a title: Director of the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies (FIAS).
That title wasn’t incidental. It was central. It appeared prominently on the NFP’s campaign website and in public speeches. It was used to present Prasad as a man of ideas, independence, and global insight, the thinking voter’s candidate.
But once the votes were counted and the ministerial seat secured, that very title vanished, not from his resume but from his legal obligations.
In his 2023 statutory declaration of assets, liabilities and interests (for the year ending 2022), Prasad completely failed to disclose that he was a director of FIAS, the very organisation he invoked to earn public trust. This is not only hypocritical. It is, by any measure, a violation of the Political Parties Act, and potentially a criminal offence.
The National Federation Party loves to preach transparency and accountability. But when it comes to its own backyard, suddenly the facts get flexible.
During the 2022 elections, NFP marketed its leader, Professor Biman Prasad, as the “Director of the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies” (FIAS). Sounds academic, legitimate, and respectable - exactly the kind of intellectual polish a party wants on its campaign brochure.
Except there’s a small problem.
FIAS was formally cancelled on 26 January 2022.
That’s right. It was in the same year Prasad was touting the title to voters, the entity was quietly erased from the charitable trusts register. So while Fiji went to the polls believing Prasad was helming an active institution, public records were busy pulling the plug.
To recap:
- Prasad held himself out as Director of FIAS in 2022
- Official records show the trust was cancelled 26 January 2022
- His 2023 statutory declaration (covering 2022) does not disclose the directorship
So, what was FIAS in 2022?
A functioning trust?
A dissolved shell?
Or an election prop that conveniently disappeared once scrutiny arrived?
Either way, the timeline does not flatter the NFP leader’s narrative.
If FIAS had effectively ceased operations before or by January 2022, then advertising oneself as its Director during the campaign is misleading at best.
If FIAS was still active up to cancellation, then why was the role not declared in the mandatory filings? The Political Parties Act does not provide exemptions for “inconvenient positions”.
And if FIAS deliberately shut down right as elections approached - well, that raises another set of questions entirely.
What voters were shown and what the register shows cannot be reconciled with a straight face.
Yet this is the same party that positions itself as the moral compass of Fiji’s politics. The same leader who chides others for “lack of transparency”.
It seems accountability is much easier to demand than to practise.
So here we are:
The Fiji Institute of Applied Studies may have breathed its last breath in January 2022, but the National Federation Party’s Institute of Political Fairy Tales continued its cheerful work.
And the lesson?
You don’t need a PhD in economics to know that voters deserved the truth. Not a disappearing act.
Based on the documentary evidence shown, there may be grounds to investigate a potential false representation under the Political Parties Act and/or ethical misrepresentation to voters.
In politics, credibility is currency. And during Fiji’s 2022 general election, Biman Prasad, leader of the National Federation Party (NFP) and later Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, traded heavily on his role as a respected academic and economist.
To seal his appeal, he flaunted a title: Director of the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies (FIAS).
That title wasn’t incidental. It was central. It appeared prominently on the NFP’s campaign website and in public speeches. It was used to present Prasad as a man of ideas, independence, and global insight, the thinking voter’s candidate.
But once the votes were counted and the ministerial seat secured, that very title vanished, not from his resume but from his legal obligations.
In his 2023 statutory declaration of assets, liabilities and interests (for the year ending 2022), Prasad completely failed to disclose that he was a director of FIAS, the very organisation he invoked to earn public trust. This is not only hypocritical. It is, by any measure, a violation of the Political Parties Act, and potentially a criminal offence.
COMING NEXT: Prior to FIAS deregistration, senior figures, including Biman Prasad and Ganesh Chand, participated in planning sessions to "get it [FIAS] legal again" and transfer operations to Pacific Polytech.
The correspondence confirms the restructing as deliberate and coordinated, with proposals to re-register FIAS under new vehicles and transfer its functions. The timing raises questions about asset handling, charity government, and public office conflicts.
