The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts has raised serious concerns over a $5,000 across-the-board salary increase given to FICAC staff in 2023 and has questioned the lack of any formal job evaluation before the pay rise.
Acting FICAC Commissioner Lavi Rokoika says the increase, which totalled over half a million dollars, was not linked to performance.
Rokoika says when the management was in place in 2023, a decision was unilaterally made that everybody would get a pay increase because no one had received an increase in the past eight years.
Opposition MP Sachida Nand also questioned whether FICAC had any policy allowing management to unilaterally increase salaries without any job evaluation.
He says giving away $5,000 without any evaluation or rationale, to his understanding, is an abuse of public money.
Nand says while we expect FICAC to investigate others, this is something that also needs investigation because if left untouched, other statutory organisations could follow suit and say a precedent has been created and they follow.
Rokoika says that although there is no policy in place, the FICAC Act and the Commission’s standing orders allowed the Acting Deputy Commissioner at the time to authorise the payment.
She also confirmed that no formal grievances were filed by staff regarding the increase, but informal concerns were raised and addressed.
Opposition MP Alvick Maharaj questioned whether the Acting Deputy Commissioner who authorised the increase also received the $5,000, given that the payment was across the board.
Rokoika says the law requires that the terms and conditions of the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, and Acting Deputy Commissioner be decided by someone else, not by the office holders themselves.
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