The Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) hopes to foster partnership with communities, Government institutions and initiate school programmes to promote a culture of resilience against corruption in Fiji.

FICAC received a total of 6365 complaints in 2015 out of which 335 were identified to fall under FICAC jurisdiction and forwarded for assessment. A total of 6030 cases did not fall under FICAC’s jurisdiction and were referred to relevant institutions.

The figures highlighted indicate that majority of the people are still unaware of FICAC’s operations and tend to report cases that do not fall under the Commission’s jurisdiction.

Similarly, while celebrating the International Anti-Corruption Day 2015 last month, reports from FICAC teams deployed in respective divisions indicate that there is a greater need to conduct awareness and educational sessions in remote (rural) areas. There were a number of cases reported during the IACD celebration, however only a few cases were forwarded for assessment.

The other factor that prompted FICAC to conduct awareness sessions in these localities is that a major threshold of Governments funds are directed towards rural project implementation and there have been cases where these allocations and resources have been abused by public officials for personal gain. Hence rural communities are made aware of their responsibilities and the effects of resource mismanagement in their locality.

The public living in rural settings needs to be enlightened on FICAC’s operation and jurisdiction and one of the tasks undertaken by the Commission is to educate the definition of corruption for the better understanding among people in Fiji.

FICAC has also successfully been able to devise an assessment tool that will assist Government institutions to identify weaknesses and improve their organisational framework.

The Commission will correspond closely with relevant Government institutions and carry out the CIA assessment as a proactive approach to minimise the risks of corruption. The two-way approach of conducting regular awareness sessions within communities and CIA assessment with government institutions are strategies likely to minimise the occurrence of corruption in Fiji. Source: Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption