I was doing my job: Tabuya hits back amid salary uproar

For the first time since Parliament adopted the Emoluments Committee report recommending an increase and adjustment in the salaries and benefits of Members of Parliament (MPs), including the Speaker and President, committee chair, Lynda Tabuya, has hit back explaining their stance.

This comes amid public outcry denouncing the pay increase of the MPs.

Ms Tabuya claimed that in tabling the report she was simply doing her job as the chair to ‘follow the mandated parliamentary process under the Standing Orders to table the report and for it to be debated’.

She further claimed that there was nothing rushed about the tabling of the motion for debate last week.

“The motion approved on Friday stipulates the effective date from 1st August to 31st December 2024,” Ms Tabuya said.

“It will be brought back to parliament for debate and a decision on this will be undertaken in that six-month period stipulated in the motion,” she said.

“Members of the public will be consulted on these proposed bills and are free to submit their views during this period.

“That is the legal process. The next step in the process is for Parliament to work with the Solicitor-General’s office with the proposed amendments to the Acts.

“It will go through the process normally laid out for proposed bills.”

Attack on NFP 

In the same statement last night, Ms Tabuya launched a scathing attack against the National Federation Party and its leader and Minister for Finance Biman Prasad.

There’s been widespread support on the move by the five NFP members, who did not vote in favour of the recommendations, in Parliament last Friday.

The Fiji Sun has chosen not to publish the series of allegations as it awaits NFP Leader Biman Prasad’s response.

We have made several attempts to reach out to Mr Prasad and his team but no response was received when this edition went to press.

In her allegations Ms Tabuya said: “I am responding to explain the parliamentary process as well as the need for the public to know the truth about the involvement of all MPs, including NFP. 

“If NFP had just let the public make its own judgment based on their vote, then there would have been no need for me to respond.”

Ms Tabuya outlined the following:

• The Emoluments Committee was a committee established by Parliament under Standing Order 129 to be tasked to review the Parliamentary Remunerations Act and the Parliamentary Retirement Allowances Act.
• This committee was established under the Standing Orders of Parliament which all 55 members of parliament unanimously endorsed in July 2023.
• It is a parliamentary process that reports to parliament, not to cabinet, not to a political party, not to Government or opposition.
• The committee decided to engage an Independent consultancy firm or individual as it strongly felt it should not be reviewing its own salaries and allowances.
• The Committee published an advertisement in the dailies calling for independent consulting firms or individuals to undertake the review and make recommendations to the committee.
• With no success locally, the committee reached out to UNDP to assist them to find an independent consulting firm, noting that UNDP would be funding the independent consulting firm, they identified Mr Kevin Deveaux who is based in Canada. After conducting the review over the course of eight months the independent consultant reported back to Emoluments Committee. There were some increases, some reductions and some retained.
• The legal process of the Emoluments Committee is that it is part of the parliamentary process and reports to Parliament. It does not report to the government or to cabinet. It is for parliament to reject or approve the recommendations.

She added that should Parliament approve which they have, the committee would then work with Parliament and the Solicitor General’s office on the proposed amendments to the Acts to give effect to the recommendations.

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