ACCF expenses were more than revenue in 2020-21 - Nand

Concerns have been raised by Members of Parliament regarding the inefficiency of the Accident Compensation Commission of Fiji Annual Reports of 2019, 2020 and 2021 which they say does not show the true performance of the Commission.

The motion that Parliament debate the ‘Consolidated Review Report of the Accident Compensation Commission Fiji 2019, 2020 and 2021 Annual Reports was tabled by Assistant Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Sakiusa Tubuna.

Speaking on the motion, Opposition MP Sachida Nand says the ACCF has paid over $42 million since its inception, and $29.2 million is for motor vehicle accidents, $12.5 million is for employment-related accidents and close to $1 million is for school premises.

He says it is evident from the annual report that ACCF is not performing to its optimum level as it continues to be inadequately funded and in 2020-2021, the expenses were more than the revenue it received.

Nand says insufficient budget allocation impacts its ability to provide a service to the community.

The Opposition MP says limited public awareness, lack of communication, delay in compensation payment, absence of performance metrics, and unavailability of measurable data is a challenge which is not highlighted in the report.

He adds without measurable indicators, it becomes very difficult to assess the Commission's operational efficiency or make them accountable or responsible for the needs of the accident victims.

Contributing to the motion, Minister for Employment Agni Deo Singh says the role of the ACCF was expanded to cover employment and school accident compensations, effective from 1st January 2019.

He says prior to that, it was a fault-based arrangement whereby employers themselves had to get insurance against any accident or fatality, which would then be claimed through that process, and that could be challenged by the insurance company or the employer, and it would take quite long for the victim to finally get justice.

Singh says on 31st March this year, the Minister for Justice, in consultation with the Prime Minister, appointed an interim ACCF board, chaired by the Permanent Secretary for Employment and the board was tasked to conduct an independent review of the ACCF in consultation with the major stakeholders and assist in the assessment of the current and pending applications for payment of accident compensation.

The Minister says the Ministry has settled 421 cases comprising 372 employment cases and 49 school accidents and the pending cases to date are 448 employment cases and 32 school accidents.

He adds the total number of cases paid out to date is 204, that is 177 employment accidents and 27 school accident cases.

Singh says a Cabinet paper will soon be presented to the Cabinet whereby they will propose that we have a tripartite board that is going to oversee the work of the ACCF and the Ministry will continue to work to process and expedite all the pending cases.

He adds there is a big backlog and they really want to expedite all those so that those victims who have been denied all these loans are actually paid what is justifiably due to them.