PM Call for EOI is for Transparency, as FBC Board Members Resign
Board members of the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation Pte Ltd have resigned. This was confirmed by former board chair Sashi Singh yesterday. Last Friday, the Office of the Prime Minister had called for Expression of Interest (EOI) from interested individuals for the 22 Government companies including statutory organisations.
Part of the list was the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation Pte Ltd Board.
When asked why he had resigned, Mr Singh said: “Well as a new government comes in, new policies have come in and the board has to make way for the new appointees.” He said it was an individual choice to resign and move on.
“The general feeling is if you see the EOI has already been put out then the government wants to have new people. The board has decided to individually resign and move on so all board members have resigned with immediate effect.” Meanwhile, FBC board member Aren Baoa confirmed that he was called by an official of the Office of the Prime Minister asking him to resign.
“Yes we have resigned effective immediately. There was a notification and yes we have been asked if we could resign. So I have resigned as my term ends next month as well.”
Mr Baoa had been on the board since 2013.
In a national address last Friday, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said they had started an investigation into what appears to be excessive spending in the Department of Information, through payments to the public affairs company Qorvis, the local communications company Vatis, the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), and the Fiji Sun.
PM Rabuka Responds
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in responding to queries from this newspaper clarified the reasons as to why the Government had called for Expression of Interests (EOI) for the Board of Directors for Government companies including statutory organisations.
He said the desire of the new Government was to create a database for the citizens of Fiji who are qualified and are interested to sit in the boards of government companies including statutory bodies.
“That is the intent of calling for EOI, for it meets with the world’s best practices of transparency and accountability.
“The office of the Prime Minister is also very mindful of the Coalition Agreement between The People’s Alliance, the National Federation Party and the Social Democratic Liberal Party where members of the coalition would be considered for appointments to government boards, and that these appointments will be merit-based and not mere political appointments,” Mr Rabuka clarified.
When asked whether his office had called board members individually asking them to resign, Mr Rabuka said they were a new government mandated by the majority of the people of Fiji to bring about change in the country.
“By convention, and in true democracies, political appointees in government positions including boards will hand in their resignations, to make way for the incoming administration to make their own appointments.
“It goes without saying that those who have resigned will be most welcomed to reapply for these positions.”
Other boards
The Fiji Sun also reached out to the Airports Fiji Pte Ltd, Land Transport Authority, Fiji Coconut Milliers Pte Ltd, Housing Authority and Food Processors Board but no resignations had been confirmed yesterday.