The Fiji military has extended its clean-up campaign to the country's largest financial institution, the 2-billion US dollar Fiji National Provident Fund.
The military council has dismissed the former government appointed board of the Fund and appointed a new six-member board after consultations with trade unions and employers.
The commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, says the Provident Fund is a national treasure belonging to the workers of the nation which must be protected so that it does not collapse and meet the same fate as other failed institutions, like the National Bank of Fiji.
Commodore Bainimarama says the Provident Fund must remain completely free of scams, fraud and corruption.
He says the new board's priority will be to investigate the substantial borrowings of the ousted government which reached a total of almost-1-billion US dollars or half of all the assets of the fund.
Commodore Bainimarama says the previous government used the Fund as a bottomless pit of money to finance their extravagant spending and waste, and the time has come for the new board to determine the viability of that excessive borrowing.
