Nasinu Town Council – The Problem Child
The Nasinu Town Council needs a serious looking into. On May 20 this year, the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) charged former council employees for alleged corrupt practises, which dated back to 2014.
Former Nasinu Town Council employees and executives from four companies fronted the Nasinu Magistrates Court for allegedly defrauding the council of more than $400,000.
Eight individuals were involved in this alleged scam, and it seems out of all the councils, Nasinu has fast become the black sheep.
This is not the first time that employees from this council were charged with corruption. Quite a few have of them from the council have fronted court and convicted over the years.
Before anyone jumps on the bandwagon that we should hold municipal council elections; mere elections would not solve any issues. None of the other councils seem to have this problem with corruption, so what is the real issue with the Nasinu Town Council? A lot, it seems.
The recent FICAC case seems to be the tip of a massive iceberg. More is expected to be unearthed as investigations continue.
The most recent case:
Former Information Technology Officer (ITO) with the council and the first accused, Pauliasi Bainivalu, was charged with conspiracy to defraud – obtaining a gain, bribery, general dishonesty – causing a loss and destroying of evidence and is alleged to have caused purchases to be made based on falsified quotations and local purchase orders from various companies.
He is alleged to have solicited $116,177 and is alleged to have accepted $57,427.40 in bribes from 2014 to 2019, resulting in losses to the council.
Another former ITO, Eliki Bula, was charged with one count of bribery for allegedly soliciting $1000 from an employee of Innovation
Technology PTE in 2014.
The employee of Innovation Technology PTE, Shiu Raman, faces a count of conspiracy to defraud – obtaining a gain, bribery, general dishonesty – causing a loss and destroying of evidence. The director of Innovation Technology PTE, Razia Bibi, was charged with a count of aiding and abetting bribery for allegedly helping her employee commit the offence of bribery by offering $2066.40 to the first accused – Bainivalu.
In this matter, $370,061.39 is alleged to have been lost because of the actions of the four individuals mentioned above from January 2014 to July 2019.
In the second case, the director of AK Investment, Diwakar Lal, was charged with conspiracy to defraud – obtaining a gain, bribery and causing a loss from June to September 2018. He is alleged to have conspired with Bainivalu and offered an advantage of $2000 to him as an inducement or reward for him performing any act as a public servant.
In the third case, the director of Printzone, Vicky Vikash Kumar, is charged with conspiracy to defraud – obtaining a gain, bribery and causing a loss amounting to $37,029 to the Nasinu Town Council from December 2017 to January 2019. He is alleged to have offered Bainivalu $7400 as a bribe while trying to obtain a gain.
In the fourth case, the manager of Business Equipment Limited, Remal Chand, and director Ranjani Chand, are charged with two counts of bribery whereby a total of $2661 was exchanged between the ladies and ITO Bainivalu from September 2017 to May 2019. The actions of all the accused are alleged to have caused a total loss of $407,090.39 to the Nasinu Town Council from 2014 to 2019.