Revealed: 

 

Mum is off to New Zealand

Aiyaz Saiyad Khayium is fond of attacking New Zealand, and all his little loyal followers moan about how Wellington has got its ties with Suva ... and wow is us, Fiji is becoming part of China. Here is a little piece of news: Aiyaz's mum is leaving Fiji and guess what, she is not going to China or India or anywhere that suggests she might be "Looking North".

No, Aiyaz's aunt is coming to live off the New Zealand taxpayer. She has permanent citizenship in the country.

And she is welcome here; perhaps she can carrying the word home to her nephew on Skype that the rest of the world thinks he is an idiot.

Funny thing though, as Auntie was shuffled off to New Zealand, a couple of beach front plots on Naisoso Island were being purchased - for a couple of million dollars apiece - in Auntie's name.

Methinks she will be living in Mt Roskill while Aiyaz, and that lovely soul with the boat, will he hanging out on Naisoso.

So is the burden of fighting corruption in Fiji.

 

 

A couple of little known facts

Voreqe Bainimarama is paying himself an annual salary of FJD$267,000.

Not bad, but not as good as his peon, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

He pays himself FJD$336,000 per annum.

Makes you wonder who the boss really is? Whose coup is it?

The extravagant salaries for the two men are justified – in their eyes anyway – by saying that the collect payment for each portfolio they have awarded themselves.

In any other jurisdiction, this would be called looting, theft or robbery.

 

peon paymaster

You get the sense that the looters know they are at risk because they receive their cash via an unorthodox method, rather than through the Ministry of Finance.

An accountant, one Nur Bano Ali of BDO Ali, an accountancy firm, hands out the booty. BDO is part of a worldwide network of accountants; paymastering to a dictatorship is not, until now, been a major business focus for them.

BDO have also just won a big contract to reform Rewa Dairy.

Perhaps they are exceptional cost accountants, and brilliant at salary and holiday pay deductions, but more than likely it has something to do with the fact that Nur Bano Ali is known to Sayed-Khaiyum as Aunty – she is his mother’s youngest sister.

Keep it all in the family….

While we’re talking about accountants, its intriguing to notice that Ernst and Young in Suva have had to brush up a lot lately about money laundering and the law applying to
it. And their advice to the police was not invoiced; their accountants were being interrogated whether they liked it or not.

Not that Ernst and Young had anything especially on their conscience – just one of their high profile clients might be in serious trouble – unless Bainimarama and Sayed-Khaiyum can persuade (or direct) the fraud squad to turn a blind eye.

And surely, that is impossible? Bainimarama seized power to end corruption, right?

August 7, 2010