The Fijian Elections Office stated that the front page of the Fiji Times on December 10, 2021, was not only misleading, but designed specifically to attack their credibility.

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem, it was shocking to note the level of effort put into spread this misinformation.

The report in the newspaper stated that the financial reports from the Elections Office were below par.

“The financial statement of the FEO was prepared by KPMG, one of the top four accounting firms in the world. The Auditor-General did not raise with the FEO or KPMG at the time it was in conduct of the audit in terms of its dissatisfaction with the report,” Mr Saneem said.

“Fiji Times wrongly stated the dates for the reports that were given to the Auditors.”

He said the more worrying trend as is appearing with Fiji Times was how it failed to obtain any responses from institutions before going carte-blanche its way through with the stories even front page. Mr Saneem said the Auditor-General took over nine months to finalise the audit.

“You will note that most of the annual reports in Fiji are late because the Audit reports are never on time. In 2021, the Auditor-General completed the audit of financial year 2017-2018. As we speak, they are auditing 2018-2019.

“The Auditor-General himself should explain why his office handled the audit process with such level of incompetence. It is our view that in making an unjustifiable assessment in his report to Parliament.

“I invite the Auditor-General to explain to the FEO what his standards are and what are his concerns in the statements.”

In response the Office of Auditor-General said the recent Auditor-General’s Reports to Parliament has been referred by the Speaker to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, OAG would not be issuing any statements on them.

Questions had been sent to the Fiji Times for a response however there was none by the time edition went to press.