6 Jan 2014

UFDF calling for CEOs sponsored by regime to be held to account

6:41 pm on 6 January 2014

The political grouping, the United Front for a Democratic Fiji, is calling on all government departments to document what it describes as excesses and abuses by regime-sponsored chief executives and directors.

In a statement, the UFDF says the Fiji Electricity Authority's chief executive, Hasmukh Patel, has received back pay in in the past month in excess of 50,000 US dollars, while other senior staff received nothing.

The UFDF says his contract was recently extended by three years and his salary increased to more than 190,000 US dollars in addition to back pay and benefits.

It says sources from the Fiji Electricity Authority report Mr Patel named his own salary and asked the accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers to provide a justification for the increase before it was signed off by the board and the Attorney General.

The UFDF says such excesses need to be documented so when a democratic government is installed those involved can be held to account.