{"id":453677,"date":"2021-12-31T22:11:27","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T22:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=68230"},"modified":"2021-12-31T22:11:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T22:11:27","slug":"prasad-warns-fiji-government-will-end-2021-as-laughing-stock-over-audit-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/12\/31\/prasad-warns-fiji-government-will-end-2021-as-laughing-stock-over-audit-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Prasad warns Fiji government will end 2021 as \u2018laughing stock\u2019 over audit inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Luke Nacei in Suva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad has asked if the Fiji government inquiry into the Office of the Auditor-General will be held in public.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Prasad was responding to the announcement this week of a Commission of Inquiry into the OAG \u201cto inquire into and report on: the conduct, operations and performance of the Office of the Auditor-General\u201d and other issues concerning the office.<\/p>\n<p>Prasad, an economist before his political career, said commissions of inquiry were usually held in public.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiji.gov.fj\/Media-Centre\/News\/FIJI-BEGINS-PHASED-TRANSITION-TO-DIGITAL-TELEVISIO\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Fiji begins phased transition to digital television<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/12\/24\/consumer-demand-should-be-driving-tv-to-digital-platform-not-by-force\/\">Consumer demand should be driving TV to digital platform \u2013 \u2018not by force\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cSo we ask the government if this will be a public inquiry?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWill the public hear the allegations against the Auditor-General\u2019s office? Will the Auditor-General be allowed to respond in public to the Government\u2019s complaints?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Prasad claimed the commission of inquiry was being formed \u201cto deflect questions about the tens of millions of dollars [the government] has spent on Walesi [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WalesiFiji\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">Fiji&#8217;s controversial free new digital television platform<\/a>]\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government refuses to talk about <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/12\/24\/consumer-demand-should-be-driving-tv-to-digital-platform-not-by-force\/\">Walesi\u2019s accounts<\/a>. Even though Walesi\u2019s accounts up to 2017 are ready, the government refuses to release them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Petty argument while people in poverty<\/strong><br \/>\nThe NFP leader said the government would end 2021 as a \u201claughing stock\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said government \u201conly cares about winning a petty argument even when tens of thousands of people are still living in poverty and despair because of the pandemic\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are once again threatened by the omicron variant,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany families are in isolation because they have tested positive in homes, in villages and settlements on Vanua Levu, are struggling and are in need of help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is the government doing to help? We should be preparing for the cyclone season and ensuring our people are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Luke Nacei is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2022\/01\/01\/prasad-warns-fiji-government-will-end-2021-as-laughing-stock-over-audit-inquiry\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Luke Nacei in Suva National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad has asked if the Fiji government inquiry into the Office of the Auditor-General will be held in public. Professor Prasad was responding to the announcement this week of a Commission of Inquiry into the OAG \u201cto inquire into and report on: the conduct,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18815,28579,35114,304,40276,40158,5,495,94,39010,12,14,34,369,1737,2975,40161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454289,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453677\/revisions\/454289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}