The Minister of Justice, Ronald Warsal and the Minister of Finance, Gaeton Pikioune have jointly launched a Commission of Inquiry into the Vanuatu National Provident Fund (VNPF) non-profitable investments.
Mr Pikioune said a total of VT4-billion and 4-hundred million (VT4.4 billion) worth of investments during 2007 – 2014 period, will be investigated.
This figure represents 22 percent of VNPF’s total investment.
The five-member Commission was appointed by the Minister for Justice. They include University of the South Pacific lecturer, Anita Jowitt, as chairperson, lawyer John William Timakata, accountant Kathy Abel Nako, Tony Nalipus as assessor, and Andrew Kausiama in secretary of the Commission.
The committee has at least two-months to complete their task.
According to Mr Warsal, the Commission was established following a request by the Minister of Finance, who is also responsible for the VNPF after allegations of mismanagement of the VNPF funds, illegal and improper conduct of the past and present VNPF Board decisions, surfaced.
The minister confirmed that the investigations will cover staff and members of the board as well as recipients of the funds as it tries to determine whether decisions were made in line with the VNPF Investment Policy Guideline, and or whether due processes were complied with.
The order of appointments made by the minister states “only technicians and accredited journalists will be allowed into the conference room for the hearings.” And that the “hearings of the Commission must use the government system, social media and the internet to stream live the hearing to members of the public. Facebook is to be used or through the Ministry of Justice’s participation page”, the minister said.
Mr Warsal also assured members of the public that the report of the Commission will be treated seriously. He said the report of the commission will be treated differently to previous Commission of Inquiries whose reports would normally end-up on shelves.
The deliberation of the Commission must be made in private and its report must be released to the public.
Minister for Finance and Economic Management Pikioune said the establishment of the Commission is necessary to set precedence on issues relating to the management of the VNPF fund.
The newly appointed Commission will replace an earlier Commission whose task was intercepted and prevented from completing its task by the calling of the snap election early this year.
Meanwhile, Mr Pikioune called on the Commission to ensure they perform their duties with fairness and without prejudice.
The hearing will be held at the VNPF conference room.
Photo: Minister of Justice Ronald Warsal and Minister for Finance and Economic Management Gaeton Pikioune (center front) posing with few members of the commission and management of VNPF