Felix Chaudhary 
Deputy Prime Minster Manoa Kamikamica
Deputy Prime Minster Manoa Kamikamica says the Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit’s response to a parliamentary standing committee that there was no link between detected illegal activity and drug fines “does not gel.”
“The FIU as we all know is a fundamental agency when it comes to the credibility and integrity of our financial system,” he said during debate in the House this week on the FIU’s 2023 Annual Report.
“A dysfunctional or under resourced FIU, places a lot of risk on the economy’s integrity.
“One of the first things, when I looked at the Report, was for 5 million transactions there is only 18 eyeballs looking at those transactions which seems quite woefully inadequate.
“I thank all the Members in this Chamber who contributed in this Report, we support the need to perhaps relook at the resourcing and ensure that the FIU is adequately resourced to do its functions.
“The other thing, that struck me was, there was a question posed by the Committee to the FIU saying whether there was a correlation between detected illegal activity and the drug fines. The answer was no. I find that a bit hard to actually believe, because it just does not gel.
“Given the substantial level of drugs that we are aware of that is happening in the country, you would have thought that that would have been picked up in some of the unusual reports.
“Perhaps just something to think about and when the Act is being reviewed that we look at supporting this very important Unit. As I mentioned, the whole credibility of our financial system hangs on how this agency performs.”
