Cabinet did not approve the consultancy services for Rewa Dairy’s restructure to be awarded to any specific firm - FICAC

Cabinet did not approve the consultancy services for Rewa Dairy’s restructure to be awarded to any specific firm - FICAC

FICAC has made the conclusion that cabinet had approved the restructure of the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company and documents also show that cabinet did not approve that the consultancy services for Rewa Dairy’s restructure in 2010 be awarded to any specific firm.

FICAC Acting Deputy Commissioner, Rashmi Aslam says the cabinet had approved $500,000 be sourced from the National Export Strategy budget held with the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade and Industry and cabinet had approved the registration of two entities named Fiji Dairy Company Limited and Fiji Dairy Cooperative Company Limited.

FICAC has ruled that there is no merit to the complaint made by Opposition Leader Sitiveni Rabuka regarding the 2010 Rewa Dairy Restructure Consultancy contract award of $500,000 Aliz Pacific without tender.

Aslam says they wish to state on the outset that the threshold of proving a matter that comes within the purview of the Commission, as the people are aware, is very high threshold and requires proof beyond reasonable doubt. He says the degree of proof and the burden of it is different and inevitably higher than that of the Auditor General’s auditing and reporting mechanisms. Aslam adds it is also a higher degree of proof than what is required in civil proceedings in court, i.e. the defamation case between Aliz Pacific and the Auditor General, as referred to in the complaint.

The complaint by Rabuka had alleged that the senior officials in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Public Service Commission, the Solicitor General’s Office, all members of the cabinet including the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, the consulting firm- Aliz Pacific and Dr. Nur Bano Ali are in breach of the abuse of office and dishonesty offences under the Crimes Act of 2009.

Aslam says that it is pertinent to note that the initial engagement of Aliz Pacific as the consulting firm to provide the strategic plan, in fact, emanated from the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company Board as a result of a tender published on the 20th of February 2009 in the Fiji Sun calling for expressions of interest.

He says as per the advertisement, the purpose of the tender was to formulate a strategic plan that would assist the company to adapt to the challenges in the market place and also provide leadership in the dairy industry which included the following, facilitate a strategic seminar-workshop and provide a draft strategic report, provide a draft corporate governance police and provide a draft risk management policy.

Aslam says subsequently Aliz Pacific was awarded the tender by the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company Board to carry out the stated task in early 2009. He adds this tender process by the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company Board was done independently, on it own volition.

Aslam further states that no member of the cabinet nor the Attorney General had any say in this process when the company decided to engage the services of Aliz Pacific in this initial stage adding that therefore any speculation that the engagement of Aliz Pacific was due to any personal interest of any person outside the board has no merit.

He says there was no cabinet decision to provide the consultancy contract to any specific firm adding that as such, the involvement of cabinet members as alleged in the complaint has no merit.