Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says the policies and procedures adopted by Fiji Airways to assess charter flights are transparent and robust and all decisions are made based on operational feasibility and in the best interest of the company, without any bias or political intervention as claimed by some in the recent case.
Professor Prasad has highlighted this while responding to a question by FijiFirst MP Premila Kumar on Fiji Airway’s charter policies and procedures they follow when processing charter requests.
While responding to the question, he says when a Fiji Airways flight is chartered, each case is assessed individually and, in some cases, the airline may be willing to accept payment after the charter has occurred.
He says factors that are considered include the credibility (financial and/or reputation) of the customer, previous business activity with the customer and an assessment or review of past payment history.
Kumar then asked why such a small deposit was taken by Fiji Airways when they were assessing last year’s Fiji to Israel charter arrangement.
Professor Prasad says the Parliamentary Business Committee allowed the question to be asked but they could have said that the question is a subject of an investigation but adds that for any decision, as per the policy, the company assesses each case on its merit.
He says the CEO is on record and has made it very clear that as far as they are concerned, they have a payment plan.
Leader of the Opposition, Inia Seruiratu asked for an update on the repayment and if the government is concerned.
Professor Prasad says the government will be concerned about any commercial company in which it has a share and that is why when they were on the other side were asking the government to bring reports to the Parliament but the previous government denied the taxpayers of the country for 8 years.
He says now they are teaching them transparency and are answering this question.
Professor Prasad says he is confident that the company will do what is in the best interest of the company and the country to run the business efficiently.
The Deputy Prime Minister says they are very confident in the ability of the people and the board to deal with this effectively. He adds they will have the ability to peruse, debate and discover what was happening in Fiji Airways in the last several years.
