Sodelpa General Secretary Dismisses Allegations Of Abuse Of Parliamentary Funds

Party General Secretary, Ms. Emele Duituturaga has today dismissed allegations that the Party Office is abusing the Parliamentary Grant.

The annual Parliamentary Grant for 2020/2021, came with a new policy directive communicated to the Party Office through the Leader of Opposition that funds are solely for the use of the administrative needs of the Parliamentary office.

SODELPA Headquarters Party Office staff salaries and operational overheads have been funded from MP deductions, donations, and fundraising and not from the Parliamentary grant. The staff of the Opposition Office are funded by the Parliamentary grant.

The Party office has adhered to the policy directive and submitted monthly financial reports to the Leader of Opposition for the use of the Parliamentary grant. The report was presented to the Opposition Caucus last week. At no point was it raised, that Parliamentary funds had been misused.

The annual parliamentary grants are deposited into the Party accounts with other funding sources and administered by the Party office. The Party office is responsible for the annual auditing of the party accounts in accordance with the Political Parties Act 2013.

The Party office has recently acquired the MYOB accounting software to improve its financial reporting, accountability, and transparency. This is a major improvement from the manual accounting system which the Party office has been operating until now