The Office of the Secretary-General to Parliament says a cheque was prepared for NFP parliamentarian, Prem Singh despite concerns that he was not given any allowance during a recent trip with three other parliamentarians to the Pacific Parliamentarians Forum in Wellington.
In response to concerns by the NFP, the Office of the Secretary-General to Parliament says Prem Singh was advised verbally that his cheque with the new allowance rate had been prepared but he refused to collect the cheque.
The Office of the Secretary General to Parliament sought a legal opinion in relation to the request from the National Federation Party that they are paid allowances in accordance with the old rates before parliament passed the increased allowances under the Parliamentary Remunerations Decree 2014.
They were advised that the secretariat could not deviate from the determination as that would be a breach of the provisions of the decree.
The Office of the Secretary General says it will inform Prem Singh that they can only pay the new allowance as it has been approved by parliament.
National Federation Party MP Prem Singh says he returned the allowance for the New Zealand trip and wrote to the Secretary General to Parliament, Viniana Namosimalua that he refused to accept the new parliamentary allowance rate approved by parliament because of the party’s stand on the issue.
He says there has been no response from the Secretary General and he did not receive any allowance for his trip to New Zealand.
On the 29th of September, 39 parliamentarians had voted for the increased allowances, 9 parliamentarians were absent while Biman Prasad and Prem Singh voted against the motion.
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