The military has stressed that they do not operate under the Civil Service Regulations and the Public Service Commission cannot tell them that they are not supposed to accumulate leave.
Military spokesperson Major Neumi Leweni said ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase who has criticized the Army Commander's $184,000 leave payout, should realize that the military's conditions are different.
"Now let’s make that clear – All military personnel have a separate working condition. We are not civil servants. Full stop. Which means we do not fall into that category. And secondly, we only carry out an investigation if something wrong has been done. As far as we are concerned, there is nothing there to be investigated."
Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry maintained that the leave payout was correct as Bainimarama's leave had accumulated over the last 30 years and previous governments did not take decisive action to pay it out.
Auditor General Eroni Vatuloka confirmed that they have started off with the investigations into the leave payout.
