Former Prime Minister and Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry says Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad should stick to the issues raised by him and not assassinate his character.
Chaudhry on 1 March had issued a statement saying the 3.7 per cent inflation figure released by Prasad means nothing to the general shopper when the cost of living continues to go up with higher prices for goods on supermarket shelves and elsewhere.
In reply, the Finance Minister issued some clarification and also launched an attack on Chaudhry.
“He should stick to the issues raised by me on the official inflation rate and the soaring prices of food and other essentials directly attributable to the 15% VAT he imposed in his 23/24 Budget,” said Chaudhry.
“He should be the last person to launch into a character assassination of me considering that within weeks of taking office he himself became the centre of a financial scam involving the Global Girmit Institute and the troubled Pacific Polytechnic.
“Not only that his 15-month stewardship of the Finance portfolio is already littered with allegations of nepotism, cronyism and favouritism with the appointment of cronies and political associates to lucrative jobs in the public sector, some from outside Fiji.
“The Minister should open up the Girmit account books. The nation is still anxiously waiting his promised release of last May’s Girmit celebration accounts – in particular, the $200,000 granted to the virtually defunct Global Girmit Institute of which his wife and a close political ally are trustees, without tenders being called.
Chaudhry claims Prasad has a nasty habit of resorting to vicious personal attacks of those who question his statements and policies as Finance Minister.
“It shows an alarming degree of insecurity and immaturity, ill befitting a person holding such a responsible position.”
“He makes baseless attacks on my past record as Finance Minister when the nation well knows that my performance as Finance Minister in 1999/2000 and again in 2007/8 remains unparalleled.
“In 1999, we gave the nation a record 9.6 per cent growth after less than a year in office with all sectors of the economy performing above par, and an almost zero rate of inflation at 0.2 per cent.
“In 2007, I restored financial stability to a nation that was precariously perched with Foreign Reserves at less than two months of imports and earned commendation from the International Monetary Fund for pulling Fiji out of danger, not to mention the appreciation of the local business community.
“But then my record as both Prime Minister and Finance Minister is well known to the nation. I do not have to defend myself to Biman Prasad who in fact, stands answerable to the business community as well as the ordinary people of Fiji who have lost all confidence in him as Finance Minister.
“He may be an academic but his lack of practical knowledge of running the nation’s finances is now being widely questioned by a disillusioned nation.
“As for the moneys donated to me by the people of my ancestral province of Haryana (India), an independent inquiry set up by the Bainimarama Government in 2008 cleared me of any wrong doing.
“The charges resurrected in 2010 before a highly compromised judiciary was political persecution, as the NFP well knows.
“Minister Prasad appears to have a lot of hangups about me. I invite him to thrash it out at any public forum he chooses so I can deal with it on a face to face basis.
“He should, however, take a critical look in his own self instead of levelling accusations at others. He has dismally failed the people who elected him with such high hopes,” Chaudhry added.
