FICAC’s Senior Counsel Rashmi Aslam has informed the Suva Magistrates Court that they may call another witness since Ratu Isoa Tikoca while giving evidence has disputed to information from some documents.
Tikoca is charged with failure to declare his liabilities contrary to section 24 of the Political Parties Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures Decree.
Tikoca maintained in court that he does not owe anything to the government as he has paid his debt of $4,436 in February 2009 and did not respond to the question when he was asked to clarify how he paid his debt.
Defense Counsel, Kitione Vuetaki objected to this and said that the prosecution cannot go through that document because the issue is about whether the debt has been paid or not.
Rashmi Aslam then told the court that he is going through the same document which the defense counsel has gone through previously.
Tikoca told the court that all his documents were prepared by his accountant and they should answer his questions.
The suspended parliamentarian told the court that after the Public Accounts Committee Meeting in 2008 he was notified that he owes to the government.
He says he then wrote to the Auditor General’s office stating his reasons for owing to the government.
Meanwhile, Aslam revealed in the court that Tikoca had sent an unsigned letter through e-mail, fax and postal to the Auditor General’s office stating his reasons why he did not pay his debts.
When asked in court, Tikoca denied that the letter was written by him as it was not signed.
It is alleged that Tikoca failed to declare the liability and the amount of the liability to the Registrar, the Permanent Secretary responsible for Elections that he had incurred to the Government of Fiji during his tenure as Fiji’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea.
The trial continues today.
