Issue No: 798; 26 May 2001

The purge began immediately after the elected government was taken hostage. Numerous senior civil servants were harassed, humiliated, and victimised. It is claimed that the systematic cleansing of the civil service of independent and professional civil servants was organised by a few senior civil servants who were closely involved with the terrorists. These include at least three Permanent Secretaries. This group also organised rapid promotions of their cronies, and mass transfers.

The latest comes with media reports of a group asking for the scalp of the former Official Secretary in the President's Office Jo Browne.

Browne had provided an affidavit confirming that advice was given by the judges to the now deposed President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. The affidavit was used to confirm that Justice Daniel Fatiaki had been part of the group which rendered advice on the dismissal of the Prime Minister, dissolution of the Parliament and the abrogation of the Constitution.

The Office of the President and the Attorney General's Office have contacted the PSC to get Browne disciplined. The PSC says that it has received the complaint and is now investigating the breaches.

So far, no civil servant involved with the terrorists has been disciplined. Yet when it comes to professions, the PSC takes out the stick. Earlier, for example, the PSC had stated that it would discipline a permanent secretary because he was caught by traffic police for violating some traffic regulation after hours. But the PSC remains quiet when drunken civil servants wreck government vehicles, abuse state vehicles, or get involved in clearly political activities. Civil servants in the Fijian Affairs Board, for example, compiled a document which discussed matters which are the domain of politicians. The regime defended the civil servants and the document, saying that it was "an internal document".

It is also understood that the regime had applied significant pressure on civil servants to provide affidavits in support of its case in the landmark Chandrika Prasad case. One civil servant was even promised a foreign diplomatic posting in return for the affidavit.

It is also understood that the office of the Solicitor-General has been bypassed in almost all legal matters of importance. The President's Office, for example, on advice from the Prime Minister's Office, engaged private lawyers rather than the state lawyers for legal opinion on the constitution and the Court of Appeal ruling on the Constitution. It is also believed that the Solicitor-General was pressured into providing an affidavit to support the regime's case against the Citizens Constitutional Forum legal challenge.

A senior civil servant and long time trade unionist stated that the way the regime is conducting itself, Fiji will end up with a highly politicised and incompetent civil service which will haunt Fiji for years to come.