Fiji's Sodelpa party says unaware of pay claim flyer

Transcript

Fiji's Social Democratic Liberal Party says it did not release a flyer making claims about the Prime Minister's salary and there is no evidence it exists.

Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama has alleged that SODELPA and the United Front for a Democratic Fiji distributed flyers stating that he earned nearly one million US dollars a year.

Christopher Gilbert asked the leader of SODELPA, Ro Teimumu Kepa, if she had come across the flyer.

RO TEIMUMU KEPA: He's saying there is such a flyer but I haven't seen that flyer. So, I wouldn't know who has the flyer who has the flyer and where it's coming from, and what part of the country it's being distributed in. Apparently according to our local media he's said that a political party was circulating it when he was in Rotuma.

CHRISTOPHER GILBERT: Right, but you haven't encountered it. Have any of your constituents, any of the voters, people of Fiji come to you saying "we have received this flyer"?

RTK: No, nobody.

CG: Nobody, what about the other political parties, the Fiji Labour Party and others have they come to about anything like this?

RTK: You know I have to tell you we have very important issues that we discuss and this one is not one of them. So, I have no knowledge at all of any flyers. The local media have asked me and I've stated I have no knowledge of any flyers here or wherever it is. So I'm not sure where he's bringing that information from.

CG: The flyer relates to quite an important though which is the way in which the salaries of the Prime Minister and the Ministers are being handled at the moment and whether that information is going to be released?

RTK: This particular issue has been around for some time and they have not put out any statement to my knowledge saying whether this information is true or not. People have been talking about it and we are very interested in particularly when their salaries were not being paid through the normal channel which is the Ministry of Finance. People would have their suspicious as to why, since even before independence and certainly after independence these salaries have been paid out by the Ministry of Finance. Then suddenly when they come into power it suddenly transforms itself from the Ministry of Finance to a local, to a private company. That is of great concern to us as to why that is being done. So people naturally will be suspicious and I for one would like to know how much actually they're being paid, whether its the same as other ministers have received in the past, or why suddenly all this secrecy?