Registrar of Political Parties Mohammed Saneem.

The National Federation Party has been found in breach of the Political Parties Act.

Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem, says this comes as the Fijian Elections Office found various discrepancies within NFP’s audited 2018 accounts.

Saneem says the 2018 audited report from NFP was signed off by Parkers Chartered Accountants Fiji PTE Limited, an independent liability company.

However, Parkers Chartered Accountants is not an approved auditor under the Fiji Institute of Accountants Act and therefore not entitled to issue any audit opinions.

Saneem says the total source of the party’s funding in the audited financial statement is overstated by $103,032.

He also highlighted that the party also failed or neglected to issue the receipts for amounts which add up to $131,578.

“It is also highly questionable how the party without having issued receipts for such a large sum, was able to compile the list of donations two years later for some 54 entries in the source of party funding listing provided to the FEO and managed to attribute those sums to individuals when the party did not issue any receipts at the time these monies were paid.”

Saneem says the NFP has now been given time to submit the audited financial accounts.

When contacted by FBC News, NFP Leader Professor Biman Prasad says they are now working to address the anomalies that have been highlighted.

“Well, all I am going to say is we are going to deal with the issues as directed by the Supervisor of Elections and Registrar of Political Parties.”

Meanwhile, the Registrar of Political Parties also highlighted that the NFP has been asked to resubmit the source of party funding list for the year 2018 with exact details and particulars.

NFP also has to submit the audited financial report as required under the Political Parties Act within 30 days of the appointment of the auditor.