The Fiji Police Force is working on a few leads and intensifying its investiga­tion into the alleged visa scam that al­legedly involves officers from a Government ministry.

This has been confirmed to the Fiji Sun by the Commissioner of Police Brigadier-Gener­al Sitiveni Qiliho, who says investigating of­ficers are working closely with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“I can confirm to you that we have intensi­fied our visa scam probe,” he said.

Brigadier-General Qiliho said officers had completed their investigation on the first re­ported case and handed the file over to the Of­fice of the Director of Prosecutions (ODPP).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed over everything to the Fiji Police Force and senior officials have declined to comment fur­ther.

It is understood the investigation will be ex­tended to other Government departments.

The Fiji Sun first broke the story on May 6.

Two days before that, the first official alleg­edly involved in the saga had her contract terminated. The contract termination was confirmed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary operations Arieta Moceica after queries were sent to the ministry’s Per­manent Secretary Ioane Naivalurua.

Ministry officials confirmed that chief pro­tocol officer, Neumi Leweni, had been stood down while the investigation is on and an­other protocol officer had his contract termi­nated as well.

The alleged visa scam was exposed after two extra names were added in the Third Party Note (TPN) of the official list of delegates to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The delegation was to stop over in Australia before flying to London.

The two “mystery” persons were not civil servants and neither did they have any links with the Government.

Edited by Epineri Vula

Feedback: maikab@fijisun.com.fj