FICAC will legally assess the complaint made against the NFP

FICAC says it will legally assess the matter before commencing with any action in relation to the complaint filed by the Fijian Elections Office against the National Federation Party.

It has confirmed receiving the complaint from the FEO.

The Fijian Elections Office referred the NFP to FICAC for allegedly breaching the Political Parties Act.

The FEO says irregularities have been identified in the Financial Disclosures of the NFP for the year 2018.

Registrar, Mohammed Saneem says the NFP now has to appoint an independent auditor that is duly registered with Fiji Institute of Accountants except Parkers Business Solutions or any persons engaged in the same firm or company within 7 days of the letter to the NFP, to carry out the independent audit of the political party’s accounts for the year 2018.

The notice of the appointment must be furnished to the Registrar on or before 4pm on 18th September, 2020.

Saneem says the NFP has also been asked to resubmit the source of party funding list for the year 2018 to the Registrar with exact details and particulars.

NFP also has to submit the audited financial report as required under the Political Parties Act within 30 days of the appointment of the auditor.

Saneem says the accounts signed off by Parkers Chartered Accountants Limited is in breach of the Fiji Institute of Accountants Act.

He says the NFP is always required to submit audited accounts from an approved auditor under the Fiji Institute of Accountants Act.

Saneem says the total source of party funding in the audited financial statement is overstated by $103,032 if all the receipts are taken into account.

He says if bank statements are considered, then the same is still overstated by $8,760.47.

The Registrar says it is found from the verification of the receipts that the NFP has failed or neglected to issue receipts for amounts which add up to $131,578.

He says it is also highly questionable how, the NFP, when it submitted the List of Donations 2 years later, derived that 54 entries in the Source of Party Funding List were attributed to individuals when the money was not receipted at the time of receipt.

Saneem says the party has confirmed that there are no other recording mechanisms within the party if receipts were not issued.

He says NFP explained that the receipts were not issued as the money was directly deposited into the party bank account. Saneem says this, however, is not correct as $92,272 remains unverifiable in the List of Donations from the bank deposits.

There were 9 transactions amounting to $17,560 identified from receipt books that were not included in the Source of Party Funding.

Saneem also noted that NFP Vice President, Seni Nabou at the meeting with the Registrar confirmed paying $3000 but ‘was not bothered about the receipt at the time’ is not a sufficient explanation that the Party could not issue receipts.

He says such explanations and practices raise doubts on the party’s handling of its finances and also shows sheer lack of due regard for proper record keeping and management of donations.

The Registrar says the donations, subscriptions and candidate fees in the audited financial statement is overstated by $36,582.47 when verified against the various bank statements.

He says the parliamentary sourcing funds has also been understated in the financial statement by $7,500 in comparison to the bank statements.

Saneem says it also found that there were 17 transactions in the value of $103,766.83, being direct deposits in the bank that cannot be linked to the Source of Party Funding list and the receipt books.

He says NFP has also failed to properly declare the total funds it has raised through ‘fundraising activities’.

In its Audited Financial Statement the party noted the amount to be $79,448, then in its letter dated 4th September 2020 the party provided well-documented breakdown of the fundraising and the total was $88,020.

However, after verification of bank deposits, the total from the bank deposits is $99,770.

Meanwhile, the NFP says they are strongly disputing a number of matters raised by the Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem regarding their 2018 financial accounts.

NFP says they will prepare a full response to the allegations before they comment further.

The party says it is also taking professional advice on the next steps.