Ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase today stressed that the SDL party will continue to push for the dismissal of Mahendra Chaudhry from the Interim Government and will not let the matter rest.
Qarase maintained that a full independent investigation should be conducted against Chaudhry for alleged tax evasion as they do not recognise the earlier independent inquiry which cleared the Labour leader.
"First of all, the enquiry into the taxation that was concerning Mr. Mahendra Chaudhry was orchestrated by the Attorney General himself. The terms of reference were quite inadequate and were bias towards a particular intention to achieve a particular outcome. And everybody knows that the way the committee was put together was rather hastily. And the fact that some key witnesses were not consulted or were just told that there was an enquiry going on indicates to anybody with some common sense that the enquiry was not properly done." Ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase
He also said the Interim Government should take decisive action.
"The fact of the matter is that Mr. Chaudhry has definitely established with sufficient fact that he evaded paying tax and so on. And unless and until the matter is referred to the court then there will still be doubt among the people of Fiji. And we now are demanding that he should be dismissed because he is the Minister of Finance. And if the Minister of Finance is excused from deliberately evading tax then what does that indicate to the rest of Fiji – that it is alright for Mr. Chaudhry to avoid tax but it is not alright for the rest of the country."
Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had said that Chaudhry has been cleared by an independent inquiry team and the SDL party should let the matter rest.
Chaudhry Rubbishes Qarase’s Claims
Interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry has rubbished claims by the Ousted Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase in relation to the tax evasion allegations against him.
Chaudhry said Qarase should stop making personal attacks against him and the Labour Leader maintains that he has been cleared in relation to the tax evasion claims by an independent inquiry team.
“I have no comment. Mr. Qarase can bark all he wants. That matter is closed. An independent inquiry found that I was not guilty of the allegations made against me. I’ve taken action against the newspaper for the embarrassment, the defamation against me, the libel against me. And Mr Qarase is coming from an angle which goes to show that irrespective of anything he just wants to criticize me or malign me. I’m not bothered about what he wants to do or what he intends to do.”
However, ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has stressed that the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua party will continue to push for the dismissal of Mahendra Chaudhry from the Interim Government.
Qarase maintains that a full independent investigation should be conducted against Chaudhry for alleged tax evasion as they do not recognize the earlier independent inquiry which cleared the Labour leader.
He now said that the Interim AG should take the matter to FICAC or the SDL will write to FICAC and the Commissioner of Police.
“Mr Khaiyum should do the right thing and refer this case to FICAC or to the Commissioner of Police for a detailed investigation. Now compare Mr Chaudry’s case with some wild allegations against certain individuals which FICAC are taking up with the courts. It seems so unfair and so biased – we have a choice of taking it up to FICAC or to the Commissioner of Police. We will consider doing that but already FICAC has mentioned sometime back that they don’t have the resources to carry out investigations. But I think that is all a lie because they can hire expertise to carry out investigations if they don’t have the resources.” Ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase
Interim AG, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has said that Chaudhry has been cleared by an independent inquiry team and the SDL party should let the matter rest.
Vakatale Disputes Qarase Claims
"We followed the Terms of Reference and did not deviate from what we were supposed to do," said Taufa Vakatale who was a member of the inquiry team into the Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's tax evasion allegations. Vakatale strongly disputed claims by ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase that the inquiry had flaws.
"The two accusations that I want to highlight is the fact that it was hastily put together and secondly that it was orchestrated by the Attorney General so that it could be the outcome that he wished for. That’s why I referred to the terms of reference – we had a terms of reference, we didn’t deviate from those terms of reference. And Mr. Qarase said that it was hastily put together – I don’t know about that. Yes – I was told at the eleventh hour, but the other two members were from overseas so they couldn’t have been told at the eleventh hour – they must have been prepared. And they were both professional people".
Vakatale explained the job of the inquiry team.
It wasn’t an inquiry. It was looking at documents available at FIRCA. And the people we worked with were the people from FIRCA."
The inquiry team to look into allegations of tax evasion against Chaudhry consisted of Taufa Vakatale, educationist and first female Deputy Prime Minister, Bruce Cowley, corporate lawyer and partner in the Minter Ellison law firm in Australia and Russell Postle, tax specialist and partner in accounting firm BDO, Kendalls also in Australia.
FICAC Reacts To SDL Call
The Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption stressed that it will investigate all complaints received and will not give preferential treatment in relation to any investigation.
As concerns continue to be raised by the SDL for a thorough investigation to be conducted against Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, FICAC spokesperson Maraia Vavaitamana said the SDL is welcome to come forward and lodge its complaint.
Vavaitamana stressed that any such complaint would be dealt with in the normal process.
“We welcome any complaints that have to made but we re-iterate that no complaints will be given special favour and it will just have to go through the same channel. All complaints are treated the same. No complaint is given special flavor. And all the complaints we receive will have to go through the same process where we receive a complaint or a report it is assessed and analyzed and a decision is made on the way forward for that complaint.” FICAC Spokesperson Maraia Vavaitamana.
FICAC earlier said in a statement that they do not have the expertise to conduct investigations into taxations matters, however Vavaitamana said FICAC will not comment this issue at this point in time.
