Former Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has attacked fijivillage, saying we are notoriously biased when we questioned Sayed-Khaiyum today on the issue raised by Deputy Prime Minister, Professor Biman Prasad that no annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General were tabled in parliament from 2006 to 2022 which shows the lack of accountability at that time.
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Professor Prasad had yesterday questioned Opposition Leader, Inia Seruiratu and some members of the Group of 16 where was the value for accountability and transparency by this group when their Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum did not ensure that annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General are tabled in Parliament.
The annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General dating back from 2006 to 2022 were tabled in Parliament in December last year.
Although Sayed-Khaiyum did not answer the question on why no annual reports were tabled from parliament from 2006 to 2022 when he was the Attorney General, he said Professor Prasad is riding on their coattails about the economic decisions they took, and he further says that Prasad needs to realise the economy is actually not doing well because of his policies that he has implemented.
He adds there was absolutely no need to increase VAT as it has dampened consumption.
Sayed-Khaiyum raised the issue about increased corporate taxes and says that increased costs is driving business away from Fiji.
He says there is a huge skills gap and businesses are saying it is taking months to get approval on work permits.
Sayed-Khaiyum says we now have a very expensive cabinet and if you say it's going to be paid from within the budget, some project is going to be stopped and money will be taken out from there and you have to pay for these salaries.
He also says what significance is Biman Prasad losing his Public Accounts Committee Chair to people’s lives and there's nothing undemocratic about that.
Sayed-Khaiyum says Professor Prasad is like a little kid who's lost his marbles five years ago in a primary school yard and now he wants to get the marbles back.
According to the Reserve Bank of Fiji in November last year, the Fijian economy is now forecast to grow by 3.8 percent in 2024, an upward revision from the 2.8 percent projected in June.
Chair of the Macroeconomic Committee, Ariff Ali says underpinning the higher growth is the better-than-expected outturn in visitor arrivals, which grew by 6.3 percent in the year to September, almost twice the projected increase in arrivals, consumption spending has gathered pace, supported by higher incomes and remittances, tourism-driven demand, higher Government spending and the pickup in new lending.
Economic growth for 2025 has now been upgraded to 3.4 percent from the 3.0 percent expected earlier.
We would like to state that fijivillage stands for accuracy, fairness and balance at all times.
We are currently trying to speak to Professor Prasad.
Link for the story : Sayed-Khaiyum is a cry baby dictator – Prof. Prasad https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Sayed-Khaiyum-is-a-cry-baby-dictator--Prof-Prasad-5xr48f/
