Anomalies found in the Special Investigation and Public Inquiry reports into Housing Authority will be referred to FICAC

The Housing Authority of Fiji Special Investigation Report by the Office of the Auditor-General and the Public Inquiry Committee reports have highlighted a number of anomalies that were done at the Authority which includes several cases for suspected fraud and possible collusion between staff and customers.

These matters will be referred to FICAC.

Minister for Housing Premila Kumar says regrettably Housing Authority has lost its purpose over several years, operated without direction and due diligence and did not follow procedures and policies.

Kumar says major failures included use of Demand Survey Form which was designed to gauge the demand for housing was used as application form, no evidence that the selection of lots were made from the database, income verification was mostly limited to submission of customer pay slip signed by the employer and the Housing Authority did not consistently carry out independent verification of customer’s income.

She adds the Authority also failed to do adequate due diligence on income of those applicants who were sole proprietors, household income verification was not performed in case for a single applicant, the selection and allotment of lots processing were not documented, third party confirmations were not obtained prior to customer selection, segregation of duties was not exercised in customer selection and lot allocation process.

Kumar says policies and procedures of the Authority indicated that the Authority was giving preference for lots to customers who indicated financing the purchase of lot and construction of homes, allocation of more than one lot to same customer, customers who owned properties were allocated lots.

Customers used retired elderly parents and relatives with no source of income to obtain lots by transferring money to their accounts, entertaining cash customers without verifying their finance sources, a number of current and former staff of the Authority and their relatives were allotted lots and lack of documentation to confirm whether adequate disclosure of interest were made by these staff.

The Minister says the Audit report also pointed out that some former staff refused to be interviewed where they had approved lots despite not having the authority to approve.

Kumar revealed that the Public Inquiry clearly showed that the people have been made to run around by the staff of the Housing Authority and yet have not been granted lots till today.

Kumar says they need to reform the Housing Authority to make it more dynamic for the purpose it was established adding the Board has been asked to urgently look at the organization structure to re-align it with the mission and goals of the organisation.