Mohammed Saneem

The Registrar of Political Parties will release the list of expenses the National Federation Party and its leader Professor Biman Prasad have made from the Party’s Relief and Welfare account today.

Mohammed Saneem says these were identified during the verification process of NFP’s audited report and financial accounts.

The Registrar referred NFP Leader, Professor Biman Prasad, to the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday.

This is in relation to the donations made by Professor Prasad to the NFP in 2016 and 2017 which exceeded the maximum amount allowed by law for any person in a year.

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

However, the NFP Leader in a statement has said the NFP Relief and Welfare Fund made donations exceeding $27,000 between 2016 and 2017, purely from the contributions of salaries and allowances.

He says the NFP’s Parliamentarians refused to accept an increase in parliamentary allowances and this was given to the NFP Relief and Welfare Fund.

Prasad says they also asked the Parliament Secretariat to divert a portion of their salaries to the Fund’s bank account.

The NFP Leader says in 2016 $2,352 came to that account from his salary.

In 2017 the amount was $18,816.

He says Prem Singh also contributed to the account from his salary and allowances.

He says the Parliament Secretariat did not process any payments into that fund until the end of 2016.

According to Prasad people needed support immediately so he advanced personal funds – and NFP also agreed to advance party funds –for the Relief and Welfare Fund, to be reconciled later.