TOP SUSPENDED SODELPA OFFICIALS DECLINE TO TALK ON FICAC CHARGES
When the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) (in suspension) management board meets today, one question will no doubt be on their minds - who are the eight MPs within their rank and file being investigated by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption?
The other FICAC investigation that should also be a topic of discussion is the mysterious case of six SODELPA (in suspension) constitutions making rounds among the suspended party’s officials.
Many bombshells were dropped on Tuesday night after FICAC released its statement confirming that they were indeed investigating nine parliamentarians.
This led to both factions within SODELPA (in suspension) asking a lot of questions about who were implicated. Some, who reached out to this newspaper overnight, claimed that the Secretary-General to Parliament, Viniana Namosimalua, had named five MPs in her initial complaint. They also claimed that when the initial four from within the suspended party were interviewed by FICAC, they happily spilled the beans on the other four. FICAC has neither denied nor confirmed this. As far as they would be concerned, a crime is a crime and it does not matter who dobbed in the other four. In fact, SODELPA (in suspension) sources tell us how people have gone to great lengths to inform FICAC and were happy to provide evidence that their other suspended party members should also be investigated. How true is this? We do not know. The main focus of the management board is to get the suspension lifted. After all, only when the suspension is lifted will the 21 MPs start getting their salaries and allowances from Parliament. Sources have also revealed that there is a push to get in Varinava Tiko as the general secretary. But there seems to be opposition to this proposition.
What will happen today?
Vijay Singh will become the president of SODELPA (in suspension). That is a given. He will then determine the path the Opposition MPs take once their suspension is lifted. Where does this leave Adi Litia Qionibaravi? That is for people to wait and see after the management board meeting.
For a party (in suspension), which had talked in-depth about transparency and accountability in its general elections manifesto, this suspended party has shown all evidence that it is neither transparent nor does it want to be held accountable.