Roneil lives a dream
ABIRD sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on the strength of her own wings. In order to survive this cutthroat world our strength and confidence must come from within; not from our wealth, positions or through relying on those around us because these external things can vanish in the blink of an eye.
This was one of the best advice given to Roneil Prakash that he kept close to his heart over the years.
Roneil is the head of the legal department at the Fiji Roads Authority and was admitted as a lawyer at the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Australia.
After his admission to the Bar in Fiji, Roneil has now spent his eight-year in practice and has led a team of eight very competent proactive and diligent staff members in the legal department.
“FRA only had a solicitor but as the organisation was growing, there was a restructure that led to establishment of a full-fledged legal department.
“I took over the leadership of the team when I joined FRA in 2017,” he said.
“FRA is a big organisation and public generally don’t see the level of effort, commitment and excellence FRA under leadership of its CEO Jonathan Moore puts into the work that it does.”
He said the legal department was responsible for drafting contracts for all of FRA’s capital works projects, maintenance projects and supply contracts.
“We are also responsible for advising our engineers so they ensure our projects are administered as per the requirements under the contract because we utilise taxpayer’s funds, we also have to ensure there is good governance, accountability and transparency in all stages of tender and procurement process, in awarding and administering the contract and in dealing with liabilities and resolving disputes under the contract.
“The legal department therefore works proactively with all other departments within FRA such as risk, audit, finance, governance, and procurement, engineering, executive office and the board to ensure that the public is getting the best value for money from the taxes they pay.”
Roneil is a proud alumnus of MGM High School.
“After completing secondary school, I enrolled into the Bachelor of Laws program at University of the South Pacific in 2008. Upon completion of the LLB program, in 2012 I took the compulsory post graduate course for lawyers called Professional Diploma in Legal Practice and after that I headed straight to the Bar,” he said.
He said a number of things inspired him to become a lawyer.
“The most compelling one was social injustices that was prevalent everywhere I went. Atticus Finch from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was a fictional inspiration too.
“While I was going through the rhythms of primary and secondary school, my parents dream was for me to become a doctor and I was going along with that,” he said.
“After completing Form 7, I gave it a lot of thought and I remember praying about it and asking others to pray for me to have a sense of direction.
“It then was becoming increasingly clear to me that I no longer had the desire to study MBBS and that I was going to disappoint my parents.
“I didn’t know how to break the news to them.
“They were away at the time so after mustering some courage to face their disappointment, I telephoned my mother and told her that I wanted to study law at university.
“After some silence, I enquired if she was disappointed in me walking away from their dream.
“Her response was that she wasn’t, and for the first time she mentioned when I was circa five years old, I walked up to her and told her that I was going to be a lawyer when I grew up.
“At the time, there was no television, radio or lawyers in the family and to this day she doesn’t understand where I picked up the concept of ‘law’ at that age.
“I, myself don’t quite know, except to say that I am a firm believer that we are predestined for fulfilment of God’s promises in Jeremiah 29:11.”
He said getting admitted as a lawyer of the Supreme Court of New South Wales was thoroughly exhilarating because he had to go through a very rigorous and challenging process before the court had to grant him the privilege.