Fiji police have commenced investigations into a Commission of Inquiry report on the appointment of the country’s now sacked head of the anti-corruption office.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka stood down Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) commissioner Barbara Malimali last month after a months-long inquiry was completed.
Malimali was appointed as FICAC chief in September last year despite being under investigation by the anti-corruption office.
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Opposition figures at the time slammed it as “unbelievable” but the government backed her appointment.
The 648-page inquiry report, prepared by the Commissioner of Inquiry and Supreme Court Judge David Ashton-Lewis, has rocked Rabuka’s coalition government in recent weeks, with one political expert calling it a “full-blown crisis”.
The report, which has now been leaked online, includes allegations not only against Malimali, but senior government officials and lawyers, including the nation’s highest judicial officer and the head of the Law Society.
Local media are reporting that the inquiry found a “systematic failure of integrity” across Fiji’s governance and justice systems.
They report that the inquiry states the appointment process for Malimali was “legally invalid” and “ethically reprehensible”.
Investigations started
Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu confirmed via a statement on Wednesday that investigations into the Commission of Inquiry Report findings commenced after the police received a formal letter of referral from President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalau.
“A formal letter of referral was sent to the Fiji Police Force and the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption, to investigate the Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry and persons of interests, and where warranted, prosecution,” he said.
Tudravu said he had met with the FICAC acting Commissioner Lavi Rokoika, alongside senior Fiji police officers “to discuss the specific areas of investigation to be undertaken by our respective institutions, to avoid duplication, and ensure efficiency of the investigation process”.
He has given his assurance for a thorough independent investigation by the team of senior investigators from the Criminal Investigations Department.
“A Commission of Inquiry report into the appointment of Barbara Malimali as head of the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption has cost the country’s Attorney-General Graham Leung his job, embroiled Fiji’s Law Society in an acrimonious feud and exacerbated tensions in the governing coalition,” Victoria University of Wellington’s political science professor John Fraenkel wrote for the DevpolicyBlog on Tuesday.
Among the accused
“The country’s Chief Justice Salesi Temo is allegedly among those accused by the COI (though, at the time of writing, the report has not been publicly released).
“Worryingly, given Fiji’s history of coups in 1987, 2000 and 2006, military chief Jone Kalouniwai has visited the Prime Minister’s office reminding the nation of his constitutionally-bequeathed responsibility for the ‘wellbeing of Fiji and its people’.”
According to Fraenkel, the inquiry controversy comes at a critical juncture, with the Supreme Court due to rule on the legal status of the country’s 2013 Constitution in August and with Fiji drawing closer to the next election, scheduled for 2026 or, at the very latest, February 2027.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
