USPGATE: One alleged whistleblower was sacked. Another who revealed parts of secret BDO Report in Nauru Parliament was recommended for Honorary Doctor of Laws to USP Council by Pal Ahluwalia in March 2023

Hasmukh Lal

Pal Ahluwalia and Lionel Aingimea

Tamara Osborne-Naikatini

*The USP Council rebuffed the nomination. When Ahluwalia and his partner were deported from Fiji in February 2021, he spent 6 months in Nauru and while there Lionel Aingimea was the President of Nauru and member of the USP Council.
*So Ahluwalia, together with Aingimea and Pat Walsh (the NZ government representative on the Council) pushed for Ahluwalia to be reinstated at USP, and they were successful.
*In August 2021, Ahluwalia moved from Nauru to Samoa where he signed his 3-year contract that was to expire this August but has been renewed.
*Was Ahluwalia returning the favour to Aingimea when he unsuccessfully recommended an Honorary Doctor of Laws for Aingimea in March 2023?
*Furthermore, why Ahluwalia thought that it was acceptable for Aingimea to abuse his parliamentary privilege and reveal portions of the BDO Report in the Nauru Parliament but Dr Tamara Osborne-Naikatini, the USP biology lecturer and AUSPS president, had to be fired from her job by Ahluwalia in July for allegedly sharing, in an Islands Business (March 2024 edition) interview the alleged flawed process of the performance of Ahluwalia, which subsequently led to a two-year renewal of his contract.
*Last month, related to Aingimea and the BDO Report, the former South Pacific Technical and Further Education CEO Hasmukh Lal was ordered to pay USP $3000.
*Hasmukh Lal had claimed in his court case against USP that on 27 April 2021, the USP Council had discussed the BDO Report at its meeting and had agreed that the contents of the BDO Report would not be released to the public.
*However, on or about 9 September the same year, Aingimea, the President of Nauru, who was also the Chancellor of the USP Council, breached the Council directive and its Code of Conduct by tabling part of the BDO Report in Nauru's Parliament during a parliamentary speech, thus breaching the obligation of confidentiality expected of the USP Council.
*According to Hasmukh Lal, he has faced continuous contempt of court and reputational harm from the public since the leaked part of the BDO Report.
*Hasmukh Lal had sought a declaration from the Fiji High Court that USP had breached the Code of Conduct, damages for the leak of the BDO Report and cost of action on a suitable basis plus taxes.
*On 24 August two years ago, USP filed a summons to strike out the statement of claim on the grounds that Nauru was a more convenient form to hear Hasmukh Lal's claim.
*And it was an abuse of the court process as the matter pleaded in Hasmukh Lal's statement of claim were domestic in nature and not justifiable in the High Court of Fiji. 
*While granting USP's summons to strike out Hasmukh Lal's claim, the acting Master Liyanage Wickramasekara ruled as follows:
 *I do not find, based on facts pleaded therein the statement of claim, that the alleged action of third party in leaking the BDO report can be considered as giving rise to any cause of action in law to the plaintiff (Hasmukh Lal) to claim damages against the defendant (USP).'
*Hasmukh Lal was ordered to pay USP $3,000 within 28 days.

*Fijileaks: Lionel Aingimea, who was the Chancellor of the USP Council from July 2020 until June 2021, breached the Council’s directive and its Code of Conduct and tabled part of the BDO report in Nauru’s Parliament about the contents of the BDO report during a parliamentary speech in Nauru.
*The tabling of part of the BDO Report by Aingimea as well as his accompanying speech in the Parliament of Nauru breached the obligation of confidentiality that was expected of the USP Council.
*Under the Code of Conduct, USP had a responsibility to ensure to never disclose confidential information such as the BDO report.
*USP's lawyers had claimed that the release of the BDO Report, despite an agreement by its Council to keep it confidential, was done by Lionel Aingimea whilst he was no longer the Chancellor of the USP, but in his personal capacity as the 'President of Nauru, and/or either as a member of the Nauruan parliament and/or at the least as an individual'.
*Shockingly, while sacking Dr Tamara Osborne Naikatini in July, PAL AHLUWALIA was prepared to ignore Aingimea's breach of USP's agreed decision to keep the BDO Report confidential and nominated Aingimea for the Honorary Doctor of Law(s).
*'The Law is an Ass' when it comes to Aingimea and Osborne-Naikatini.