Former Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has attacked fijivillage, saying we are notoriously biased when we questioned Sayed-Khaiyum today on the issue raised by Deputy Prime Minister, Professor Biman Prasad that no annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General were tabled in parliament from 2006 to 2022 which shows the lack of accountability at that time.
Professor Prasad had yesterday questioned Opposition Leader, Inia Seruiratu and some members of the Group of 16 where was the value for accountability and transparency by this group when their Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum did not ensure that annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General are tabled in Parliament.
The annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General dating back from 2006 to 2022 were tabled in Parliament in December last year.
Although Sayed-Khaiyum did not answer the question on why no annual reports were tabled from parliament from 2006 to 2022 when he was the Attorney General, he said Professor Prasad is riding on their coattails about the economic decisions they took, and he further says that Prasad needs to realise the economy is actually not doing well because of his policies that he has implemented.
He adds there was absolutely no need to increase VAT as it has dampened consumption.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the issue about increased corporate taxes and asked whether it was driving businesses away from Fiji. He says there is a huge skills gap and businesses are saying it is taking months to get approval on work permits.
Sayed-Khaiyum does not answer question on why annual reports were not submitted from 2006-2022 and says fijivillage is notoriously biased pic.twitter.com/sP862eW1TQ
— fijivillage (@fijivillage) January 23, 2025
Sayed-Khaiyum says we now have a very expensive cabinet and if you say it's going to be paid from within the budget, some project is going to be stopped and money will be taken out from there and you have to pay for these salaries.
He also says what significance is Biman Prasad losing his Public Accounts Committee Chair to people’s lives and there's nothing undemocratic about that.
Sayed-Khaiyum says Professor Prasad is like a little kid who's lost his marbles five years ago in a primary school yard and now he wants to get the marbles back.
According to the Reserve Bank of Fiji in November last year, the Fijian economy is now forecast to grow by 3.8 percent in 2024, an upward revision from the 2.8 percent projected in June.
Chair of the Macroeconomic Committee, Ariff Ali says underpinning the higher growth is the better-than-expected outturn in visitor arrivals, which grew by 6.3 percent in the year to September, almost twice the projected increase in arrivals, consumption spending has gathered pace, supported by higher incomes and remittances, tourism-driven demand, higher Government spending and the pickup in new lending.
Economic growth for 2025 has now been upgraded to 3.4 percent from the 3.0 percent expected earlier.
We would like to state that fijivillage stands for accuracy, fairness and balance at all times.
We are currently trying to speak to Professor Prasad.
Deputy Prime Minister and National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad says Leader of the Opposition, Inia Seruiratu and some members of the Group of 16 who are planning to set up a new political party seem confused as Seruiratu is giving credit to Bainimarama and Sayed-Khaiyum who had abandoned the FijiFirst Party.
Professor Prasad says Seruiratu’s group is saying that they will look at priorities like bringing economic stability, cost of living, combat crime and proliferation of drugs and upholding accountability and transparency in governance.
He says some of these people in the Group of 16 were involved when audit reports were not made public from the December 2006 coup to 2014, and when Professor Prasad became the Public Accounts Committee Chair and was looking into those reports, then these same people with Bainimarama and Sayed-Khaiyum changed the parliamentary standing orders making any MP able to be the Committee Chair rather than just the Opposition.
Professor Prasad also questions where was the value for accountability and transparency by this group when their Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum did not ensure that annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General are tabled in Parliament.
The annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General dating back from 2006 to 2022 were tabled in Parliament in December last year.
Professor Prasad also asks who is responsible for the state of affairs that the coalition government has inherited on drugs.
He adds Seruiratu was the Minister and what did he do.
He says the coalition government has taken decisive steps which include the fight against the supply of drugs, setting up of the Narcotics Bureau and drug rehabilitation centres.
The Deputy Prime Minister says the former FijiFirst which included Seruiratu, Parveen Bala and others had left a huge debt burden of 90 percent of GDP after taking a lot of loans even before COVID-19.
Professor Prasad also says the inflation rate last year was lowest since 2021, and the economic growth and investments now are through the direct policies and measures implemented by the coalition government.
@fijivillage.com Seruiratu’s group is confused and what did they do when they were in Govt – Prof. Prasad
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