Litia Cava 
Standing Committee on Economic Affairs member Premila Kumar. [Photo: FILE]
Delays and poor-quality financial intelligence are being blamed for weakening Fiji Police investigations into financial crime.
Standing Committee on Economic Affairs member Premila Kumar says delays in feedback from the Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit can cause investigators to lose interest in cases and slow the entire process.
She states the committee must address the quality of information and intelligence shared with law enforcement agencies.
Kumar adds that the agencies are wasting resources when poor-quality reports fail to produce results.
Committee member Semi Koroilavesau said the bigger concern was the lack of vetting of intelligence before it reaches police.
He says the FIU appears to be collecting intelligence and dumping it on police, leaving investigators to determine which information is useful.
Koroilavesau said this missing link could be contributing to the lack of prosecutions.
He says intelligence should be vetted and prioritised so police can focus immediately on cases most likely to lead to prosecution.
Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police for Operations Meli Sateki agrees with the committee’s concerns.
He says 2024 was the first year police began developing a better working relationship with the FIU and were allowed access to its database.
Sateki says the issues raised were operational challenges during the 2024 reporting period and that they should improve as the police and the FIU work more closely.
The committee says following that chain from referral to prosecution is critical to measuring whether financial intelligence is producing results.
