Registrar of Political Parties Mohammed Saneem

Registrar of Political Parties has clarified that NFP Leader has not been referred to the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption for helping people.

This after NFP Leader Professor Biman Prasad in a statement claimed that Registrar of Political Parties Mohammed Saneem wants him investigated for donating money for Cyclone Winston relief.
Saneem while setting the record straight released the list of expenses the NFP and its leader Professor Prasad has made from the Party’s Relief and Welfare account.

The Party spent $22,736.95 from this account in 2017 through 50 transactions. The first disbursements from the “Winston Relief Account” were on 06 January 2017. This first disbursement was described as pay in the sum of $973.08.This pay is for NFP staff”.

Saneem adds out of the 50 transactions, only six reflect that they were for Cyclone relief efforts in 2017.

“Based on the above analysis from the accounts presented by the NFP, only $2,154.80 out of $22,736.95 was listed for activities related to Relief or rebuilding after Winston in 2017. The Party used $20,582.15 from the donations it received in the Relief and Welfare Fund for general party activities”.

He says it is worrying that money for relief were utilized in purchasing office supplies and paying staff salaries.

There is evidence that NFP President Pio Tikoduadua has also received several payments from the account

“In 2017, the money paid to him totalled to $3600. We have no record of what that money was spent on. There is one which says that there was a payment made to honourable Tikoduadua for medical expenses that was a thousand dollars”.

Saneem says the NFP continued to use the Relief Account but instead made general deposits and campaign funding from the same.

Prasad was referred to FICAC on Friday in relation to the donations made by him to the NFP in 2016 and 2017 which exceeded the maximum amount allowed by law for any person in a year.

According to Saneem, based on the information provided by Prasad and the NFP, the total donation ascertained so far amounts to $28, 252.