No personal agenda against Chaudhry

The Former Finance Minister and current Fiji Ambassador to China, Sir James Ah Koy stresses that the two officials of Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority who were sacked last year, were top FIRCA professionals.

Sir James believes that there was no personal agenda against Interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry when the former Chiefs Auditors for FIRCA, Lepani Rabo and Joseva Leano started intensive investigations against Chaudhry.

The former Finance Minister said he has known Rabo and Leano for a number of years when he was the head of the Finance Ministry, and the two were in the top three positions of the organization due to their experience and professionalism.

He reveals that two other officials from FIRCA were handling Chaudhry's file and they were the ones who allegedly found the discrepancies in the files. They then referred the matter to the Chief Auditor, Lepani Rabo.

The former Finance Minister said the top two officials knew that they would be victimized and they had also sought advice from him.

Ah Koy confirmed to Village that Rabo and Leano met with him after they were asked to go home. He said the ironic thing is that the two were handling Chaudhry's tax files.

Ah Koy also confirms that he met Rabo and Leano with the Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama last year where the two raised serious concerns about Chaudhry allegedly evading tax over a period of time and his source of income in the off-shore accounts.

Meanwhile Ah Koy who is in the country with a delegation from China said Interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry should step aside now as it is just not right for him to stay on and make decisions on taxation issues if he himself is alleged to have evaded taxes and not declared income in off-shore accounts.