World statistical bodies raise concerns over Kemueli Naiqama’s sacking

The International Statistical Institute and the International Association for Official Statistics are gravely concerned over the decision of the Government to arbitrarily terminate the employment of Government Statistician, Kemueli Naiqama on the 15th of last month.

In a letter to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, they say many of the statistics regularly produced by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics as with other national statistical offices are used by investors, international rating agencies and others who trade and engage with Fiji.

It says the Fijian government has damaged trust in the Fiji Bureau of Statistics and its excellent international reputation as well as its practices, staff and its future.

They say they are concerned that the Minister for Economy took a view on the methodology of the survey and used this as a reason for the dismissal without apparently seeking professional statistical advice.

The two organisations say the termination of the appointment of the government statistician by political direction without due process would be a breach of this principle and in many countries be seen unconstitutional.

They say it is the government statistician who guarantees to those outside the country that their trust in official statistics is well-founded.

They further say that the government needs to act urgently to provide vindication of its actions independent of the political process so it can rebuild trust in Fiji’s statistics.

A government statement released last month stated that the Ministry of Economy, through the Acting Permanent Secretary, Shiri Goundar terminated the contract of the then CEO of the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, for failure to comply with Section 5 of the Statistics Act 1961.

The statement stated that in an unfortunate blow to the Bureau’s credibility, Naiqama endorsed the publication of unverifiable information in the Housing Income and Expenditure Survey 2019-2020 relating to ethnicity and religion – data that was revealed to be extrapolated from erroneous sources and which exceeded the established scope of the survey’s data collection.

It said by exceeding the scope of data collection and ignoring fact-based methodology, Naiqama breached the terms of his contract with the Ministry.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had said the former CEO of the Fiji Bureau of Statistics did not act in line with government policy and the law.

Under the Statistics Act 1961 which was updated in 2016, the Minister for Economy appoints the Government Statistician.

Section 5 of the Act also says that with the approval and following the direction of the Minister for Economy, the Government Statistician shall collect statistics relating to any matter listed in a schedule in the act.