FICAC rules no merit to the complaint made by Rabuka

FICAC has ruled that there is no merit to the complaint made by Opposition Leader Sitiveni Rabuka regarding the 2010 Rewa Dairy Restructure Consultancy contract award of $500,000 Aliz Pacific without tender.

FICAC Acting Deputy Commissioner, Rashmi Aslam says the complaint  warrants no further action or proceedings by the Commission.

Aslam says despite the significant delay in complaining, 9 years after the alleged matter, the Commission commenced an inquiry to ascertain, verify and analyze the credibility of the evidence and the dependability of the facts alleged in the complaint which were based on the Auditor General’s report of 2010. He says a thorough inquiry was conducted into the complaint, analyzing all relevant evidence obtained during the inquiry.

He says it is pertinent to note that the initial engagement of Aliz Pacific as the consulting firm to provide the strategic plan, in fact emanated from the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company Board as a result of a tender published on the 20th of February 2009 in the Fiji Sun calling for expressions of interest.

He says as per the advertisement, the purpose of the tender was to formulate a strategic plan that would assist the company to adapt to the challenges in the market place and also provide leadership in  the dairy industry which included the following, facilitate a strategic seminar workshop and provide a draft strategic report, provide a draft corporate governance police and provide a draft risk management policy.

Aslam says subsequently Aliz Pacific was awarded the tender by the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company Board to carry out the stated task in early 2009. He adds this tender process by the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company Board was done independently, on it own volition.

Aslam further states that no member of the cabinet nor the Attorney General had any say in this process when the company decided to engage the services of Aliz Pacific in this initial stage adding that therefore any speculation that the engagement of Aliz Pacific was due to any personal interest of any person outside the board has no merit.

He says there was no cabinet decision to provide the consultancy contract to any specific firm adding that as such, the involvement of cabinet members as alleged in the complaint has no merit.

FICAC also adds that Rabuka heavily relied upon the Auditor General’s report of 2010. He says therefore it is important to verify the facts and related opinion in the stated report.

He says the report per se is not evidence as alluded in the complaint and matters must be independently verified in the criminal proceedings.

Rabuka had lodged a complaint with FICAC last month.

Rabuka had asked FICAC to investigate various offences which may have been allegedly committed.

Rabuka’s complaint was regarding the failure to comply with Government financial procurement procedures laid out in the 2005 Finance Instructions issued by the then Finance Minister following the enactment of the Financial Management Act 2004.

He had said the Court of Appeal and High Court judgment in Aliz Pacific vs. Attorney General confirmed that on 27th April 2010, Cabinet decided to award the Rewa Dairy Restructure consultancy contract to Aliz Pacific.

Rabuka says, however, the 2005 Finance Instructions require a competitive public tender for all expenditure over $50,001 and this was not done.