The Fiji Rugby Football Union Trustees have engaged an independent Accounting Auditor to review all payments to all players including bonuses.
Fiji Rugby Interim Chair Peter Mazey highlighted this to fijivillage News in response to statements made by former Fiji Water Flying Fijians skipper Waisea Nayacalevu and other players raising concerns of late payments and unpaid bonuses.
Mazey says this is to ascertain if anybody is missed out and they will immediately ensure that it is corrected.
He says according to their records, it shows that everyone has been paid.
The Interim Chair says the Trustees rely on the information they have been given.
He says they did facilitate the final bonus payment by obtaining a overdraft facility so the players could get it immediately until the government was able to do it because they have processes and can’t make instant payments.
When asked on how they can guarantee this does not happen in the future, Mazey says that is why they are investigating it to see why, how long and how it has been happening.
Mazey says once they have those answers, they will ensure that the High Performance Unit has the right processes and procedures in place as well as their finance departments.
He says while the government was a main contributor to the Rugby World Cup last year with $2.5 million, the whole campaign cost just under $10 million.
Mazey says the Fiji Water sponsorship was from Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka speaking to the owners and they are very grateful for that sponsorship which has just been renewed.
He hopes that the players speaking out won’t cause any of the sponsors to withdraw.
When asked on comments made by Lepani Botia and Semi Radradra who were asked to pay their own airfares and are still awaiting reimbursement, Mazey says he doesn’t know anything about it and this will definitely be part of what they are looking at.
Mazey says when they came in as Trustees, one of the things that the players and the then Head Coach Simon Raiwalui asked for was if they could have contracts for the players.
He says in association with the Pacific Players Association they had put together a fixed term player contract by the Association and the FRU and each player signed it.
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