Supervisor of Elections (SoE), Mohammed Saneem, has lodged a complaint with the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) against Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry and Savenaca Narube of Unity Fiji.

While confirming this yesterday, Mr Saneem said the report lodged with FICAC was with regards to allegations Mr Chaudhary and Mr Narube made on fraudulent payment of cheques to the former Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Suresh Chandra.

Mr Saneem said there was no cogent evidence to support the claims made by the two accusers as per the findings of FICAC.

“In addition, there was no evidence provided by Mr Chaudhary and Mr Narube to support their allegation apart from hearsay evidence,” Mr Saneem said.

“They had heard there were some cheques which the SoE had personally signed off for the former Chairperson of the EC and that Mr Chandra was paid well more than what he was entitled to.

“Both politicians had breached Section 13B of the FICAC Act as they have knowingly made false reports and misled the FICAC Officers by giving false information, statements and false accusations to the SoE and former EC Chair.”

He added that since 2016, the FEO had introduced an Electronic Fund Transfer System [EFTS] which abolishes the use of cheques for monetary transactions.

“FEO does not issue cheques to staff, EC members, or vendors and they are paid directly through EFTS.”