The Fiji Sun, in which the NFP's audited accounts were exclusively published on 13 November 2015 by the regime-controlled Supervisor of Elections, claim that the three NFP MPs might miss Parliament - the vindictive Khaiyum's Decree is silent on the matter. But we should not be surprised if Khaiyum comes up with the argument that the three MPs could remain Members of Parliament but will have no right to sit in Parliament during the duration of the party's suspension - the Decree is silent but he will interpret it his way! Fijileaks understands Public Accounts Committee was closing in on Aunty Nur Bano Ali so Khaiyum and nephew Saneem had to move swiftly against PAC chairman Professor Biman Prasad, also the NFP leader!
Audit of political parties accounts
26.—(1) A political party shall keep proper books and records of account of the income, expenditure, assets and liabilities of the political party.
(2) The accounts of every political party shall be audited annually by an auditor certified by the Fiji Institute of Accountants and shall be submitted to the Registrar within 3 months after the end of each financial year, who shall publish the accounts in the Gazette and in the media, and the costs of any such publication shall be paid by or recovered from the political party.
(3) The Registrar may at any time request the Auditor-General to carry out an audit of the accounts of a political party.
(4) Any person shall be entitled to inspect the audited accounts filed by a political party and, upon payment of a fee prescribed by the Registrar, be issued copies of the audited accounts.
(5) An auditor who provides a falsely audited account commits an offence and shall be liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or to both.
PART 4—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Offences
27.—(1) A person who--
(a) fails to furnish particulars or information required to be furnished by a political party or by him or her
under this Decree;
(b) makes a statement which he or she knows to be false or which he or she has no reason to believe to be true; or
(c) recklessly makes a false statement under this Decree,
commits an offence and shall be liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both.
(2) Where a political party commits an offence under this Decree, every office holder of that political party
shall also be deemed to have committed the offence.
(3) Where an offence under this Decree is committed by a body of persons other than a political party--
(a) in the case of a body corporate other than a partnership, every director and the secretary of the body corporate shall also be deemed to have committed the offence; and
(b) in the case of a partnership, every partner shall be deemed to have committed the offence.
(4) A person does not commit an offence under subsection (1) or (2) if that person proves to the satisfaction of the court that he or she exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of that act as he or she ought to have exercised, having regard to all the circumstances.
(5) Where a political party commits an offence under this Decree, the Registrar shall have the power to--
(a) issue a warning and require the political party to conform to this Decree within a specified period; or
(b) suspend the registration of the political party for a period not exceeding 12 months.
(6) Notwithstanding subsection (5), a person who is a member of a political party that has been suspended and is a member of Parliament, shall continue as a member of Parliament for the unexpired term.
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