Fiji: Leaders’ assets suspect

Opposition political parties in Fiji are sceptical about the asset declarations of the regime’s Fiji First Party leaders.

In the declarations which were published on Friday, the Prime Minister, Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama is reported to have a net worth of just over US$28,000 while his deputy, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, has a net worth of US$69,000.

In the declarations, Bainimarama is reported to receive a salary of US$153,000, while his deputy, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, receives US$101,000.

The United Front for a Demcratic Fiji leader Mick Beddoes says the figures declared are inconsistent and unbelievable.

“I believe they’re stating their salaries as of today and not necessarily from prior years.

“They’ve been in government for eight years, they can’t possibly have been earning nothing for eight years to end up in a situation where in actual fact the assets that they have accumulated over eight years amounts to what they have just declared.”

The Fiji Labour Party is more blunt, saying the salaries declared by the prime minister and attorney general are false.

Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, says the salaries declared are not what they have been getting paid in the last four years, and are substantially reduced from what they received in April 2010.

“The whole disclosure is suspect and the truth can only be revealed when further investigations are done into this.

“Because they have acquired properties, there are reports of them acquiring properties of substantial value. Now where these properties are and how these properties have been dealt with will have to be investigated.”

Chaudhry says the permanent secretary of finance needs to establish the truth.