Fiji AG asset declaration again under spotlight

Transcript

The opposition in Fiji is challenging the findings of FICAC's investigation into Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum's declaration of assets.

The anti-corruption watchdog has cleared the country's Attorney General of allegations he falsely declared the value of a property he owned.

A spokesperson for the Opposition Mick Beddoes told Sally Round it's discovered company documents which had earlier gone missing.

MICK BEDDOES: This company file has been missing for some time and it finally turned up last week. We now can see that in fact Honourable (Aiyaz Sayed-) Khaiyum owned 99 out of a hundred shares issued by Midlife and therefore he effectively owned 99% of the company's assets which is contrary to what the findings of FICAC was in that they were suggesting he has a minor interest.

SALLY ROUND: What FICAC is also saying is he owned shares in the company, he didn't own the land.

MB: I guess yeah, maybe they want to redefine the word ownership, I'm not sure how you would do that. If you own 99% of a company and the company owns the asset and you are to dispose of it are we to say you're not entitled to 99% of the share of it? I don't think so.

SR: So what are you saying here. Are you saying that FICAC has got it wrong?

MB: Absolutely they've got it wrong. I'm waiting to hear back from the leader and I think she's wanting to make a statement regarding that because it is a serious matter and especially as the thought of FICAC's independence comes into mind. I mean how could FICAC possibly arrive at a conclusion which is so obviously wrong?

SR: Are you alleging here that there's been pressure put on FICAC by Mr Sayed-Khaiyum?

MB: At this stage I'm not assuming anything and I don't think we are. What we're trying to get to the bottom of is to understand well, then how was it so quickly we had an investigation conducted by FICAC? And by the way no one's interviewed us and yet we already have a resolution to the investigation. It seems rather odd as far as we're concerned and then to find in a search for the file that had been missing for some time suddenly turn up and we were able to get access to it through the normal search process at the companies office.

SR: If I could just interrupt you there, so you've been trying to search this company for some time have you?

MB: Oh yeah, and a lot of others as well for some time and supposedly the files fell off the back of a bus last week, so we finally ... you know, we send the boys to do searches of other issues that we're following and other files that we're following and during the course of it we keep asking them to file again, find out again whether or not this file is there and it turned up, so we were able to get all copies of the documentation which we have in our possession and we also noted the actual returns for nine years were all done in April this year.