Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad has clarified that there has been no change either to Fiji Revenue and Customs Service CEO, Mark Dixon’s salary or his work contract.
Professor Prasad has stated this after an article in the Fiji Sun on Thursday had reported that Professor Prasad has refused to comment on why Dixon was given a pay rise in recent days.
The newspaper reported that Dixon had left the country on December 18th 2022, and returned to Australia.
They reported that when asked on Wednesday why the pay increment was given and why a local had not been appointed when Dixon left the country, Professor Prasad said: “He was always on the job.”
Professor Prasad says the Fiji Sun ran a false and extremely mischievous story about his remuneration package.
He says to report that he had defended, as Minister of Finance, the FRCS CEO’s pay increment was both wrong and malicious. The Minister says the Fiji Sun and whoever is feeding them information know very well that Dixon was hired by the previous FijiFirst government.
He says Dixon is still the head of the FRCS.
Professor Prasad says any changes to the FRCS CEO’s salary and other conditions will have to go before the new board of the FRCS, and it is for the board to deliberate on, and make a decision.
He says given the interest of the Fiji Sun on this matter, the newspaper ought to be asking the previous FRCS Board Chair as well as the previous FijiFirst government about their policy on the hiring of expatriates, and termination of employment and enforced redundancy in FRCS.
The Deputy Prime Minister says they must be held to account for their arbitrary decision in the determination of expatriates’ salaries, both for those who are still in employment and for those that have returned to their respective countries, like the former CEO of the Land Transport Authority.
He adds Fiji Sun should also care to explain its editorial policy of defending the former FijiFirst government on the hiring of expatriates over locals, as evidenced by two editorials in November, 2018 and January, 2016.
Questions have been sent to the Fiji Sun. They are yet to respond.
