Board wants breakdown of $11m spending

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Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) newly appointed chairman, Ajay Bhai Amrit (middle) and board members, Mereoni Duaibe (left) and Cecil Browne in Suva on Monday, January 16, 2023. Picture: SOPHIE RALULU

The newly-appointed Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) board wants to know how the national broadcaster spends the annual $11 million in grant it receives from Government.

FBC chairman Ajay Bhai Amrit said $11m was a lot of money and worked out to a spending of almost $1 million a month.

He said the board has reached out to FBC chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and the management to provide information that would shed light on the company’s financial situation. “What it’s being used for, we need to break it down,” Mr Amrit said.

The scrutiny of FBC’s books, he said, was aligned to Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s call for an audit and investigation into the operations of the Government as well as its statutory bodies.

“The PM has said that there will be audits and investigations into more than one organisation, whether it be statutory or not, within the Government’s sphere, so that’s number one,” he said

. “Number two is that we welcome an audit to see what the situation is and once that audit is done then we will be in a better position to make a decision going forward.

“We are working through a process and we’re working within the law.”

He said the board wanted to understand FBC’s business model and how public funds allocated to them were being used.

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