ANALYSIS- The Secretary-General to Parliament Viniana Namosimalua may have decided that she is answerable only to the Public Accounts Committee regarding questions being asked about recent overseas trips taken by her staff.

While the Public Accounts Committee may not be in a position to ask about allegations of favouritism, it will no doubt be very interested in:

Need for staff to go to Australia to attend the Australian Human Resources Institute’s annual convention, when the Fiji Human Resources Institute holds one here in Fiji.

The need for a Coaster bus to go to Nadi International Airport to pick two staff who had returned from Brisbane, when a small car would have been more economical.

The need to pay exorbitant late check-out fees.

The need to pay one staff full per diem for her staying with relatives in Melbourne. The  hotel accommodation would have been paid for by a donor agency and the Fijian taxpayers would have paid for half of the per diem. But, in this case, full per diem amounting to lots of dollars had to be paid for by Fijian taxpayers.

The reason why a person from a completely different department needed to go for training aimed at Hansard reporters.

With these allegations in mind, it would be in the interest of the Secretariat to respond about such allegations which are no doubt affecting the morale of the staff.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj