New A-G is expected in two weeks

New Attorney-General Filimoni Vosarogo is expected to assume office by the end of the month.

He must first forgo his law firm – Vosarogo Lawyers.

Mr Vosarogo was supposed to assume his new role yesterday as directed by the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in a Cabinet reshuffle announcement. However, he was still operating at the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources office at Nasese, Suva, yesterday.

Siromi Turaga, the outgoing Attorney-General was also at his Suvavou House office when Fiji Sun visited him yesterday.

Mr Turaga is also expected to begin in his new role as Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources when the new appointments are finalised.

Mr Vosarogo will meet with Mr Rabuka, who returns from an official visit of Australia later this week.

Priorities 

One of the first priorities when he takes up his role as A-G would most likely to include convening a tribunal to hear the cases of suspended Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho, suspended Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde and suspended Chief Justice.

The tribunal should have convened somewhere in the past nine months.

An estimated $2million of taxpayers’ money was wasted in salaries paid to suspended officers who were on full pay and allowances paid to those in corresponding acting positions.

Mr Vosarogo is a natural; he will fit like a glove in his new role.

His biggest challenge was to weigh in on the productivity level of former A-G Aiyaz Sayed- Khaiyum.

Fiji Sun also understands the outcome of the Bainimarama and Qiliho court case last week, where the duo were acquitted by the Suva Magistrates’ Court, may have triggered some concern over the state of play in Government, to prompt the sudden announcement of a Cabinet reshuffle the very next day.

Mr Vosarogo’s appointment stirred much debate within the legal fraternity.

But the overarching message is clear: Not everyone gets to be the PM’s pick for A-G, whose prerogative it ultimately is after all.

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