Speaker of Parliament Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu today invoked Standing Order 20 for the purposes of ensuring oversight and scrutiny into a special investigation report on Housing Authority.

The Speaker dismissed opposition MP Alvick Maharaj’s call for an inquiry into how the report was brought before Parliament.

Maharaj claims there were two separate audits carried out; however, only one ended up before parliament.

The report exposed alleged fraud by individuals and some employees of the Housing Authority, which resulted in the controversial and inappropriate owning of lots.

The Speaker started by passing Standing Order 20 and calling for the establishment of a subcommittee to further investigate the seriousness of the matter and report back to his office.

“My office will determine the membership of the Subcommittee, as well as issue a Terms of Reference, and the Subcommittee will report back to my office as per the deadline that will be issued to them.”

Opposition MP Alvick Maharaj then made a contribution, asking for clarity and time to identify what report should have been brought to Parliament.

“Can we actually first identify how this report actually ended up in the Parliament in the first place? Because if it was BDO, that report would not have come here. Because after that report itself, KPMG did another report, a special investigation in Housing Authority on the same case, and that report was never tabled in the Parliament.”

He further claims that maybe the Attorney General should rule on the matter.

“So that report should have been dealt with by the board and the minister, rather than ending up in Parliament and then being referred to the Public Accounts Committee. The Attorney General is here as well; he can actually provide further clarification at a later stage on well speaker.”

Speaker Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu responded, saying he makes the decision on this matter.

I’m ruling on this based on the content of the report that was elaborated on by the Honorable Chair of the Committee.
And based upon that, based upon his report, things should have ended there. But again, there are serious, very serious issues highlighted by the Chair based upon the performance audit report that we need to look into. One is the appearing of files, disappearing of files.”

The Speaker says people who were supposed to be interviewed have gone missing, taxpayers’ money has been used, and parliament needs to look into the report.

Ratu Naiqama further stated that Parliament needs to utilize the powers of scrutiny and oversight it has, so not only are we on par with our counterparts in Australia and

New Zealand, but at the same time we are gearing towards something that will bring out the best in whatever we do.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently investigating 60 cases of alleged fraud by individuals and some employees of the Housing