Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has defended Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasd and says he had declared to cabinet in a briefing that his wife Rajni Chand is a trustee of Global Girmit Institute.
In a statement, Rabuka said the GGI is a non-government organization and registered charitable trust, therefore, Government does not appoint the Trustees or control its operations.
“Cabinet was also informed that a sum of $200,000 was allocated towards the Girmit conference to be managed by the Sub-Committee. Given that the Sub-Committee is not a legally registered entity and does not have a bank account, the Ministry of Finance, upon discussion and approval from the National Girmit Committee, signed an agreement vetted by the Solicitor General’s Office with the Global Girmit Institute (a charitable institution duly registered under the Charitable Trusts Acts 1945 (Registration No: 1310) to manage the conference in line with the agreement and standard operating operations.”
“The institution was selected based on its previous experience with organizing the conference,” Rabuka said.
