Joseph Veramu
Executive Director
CLCT Integrity Fiji
“Anti-corruption advocacy in Fiji is urgently needed", says Jofiliti Veikoso, the Board Chairperson of Civic Leaders for Clean Transactions Integrity Fiji (CLCT-IF). "We are deeply grateful for the continued support of both Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) and Transparency International, in expediting our work during this challenging pandemic period."
Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) invited CLCT-IF in September to provide constructive inputs into their new 5-year Strategic Plan covering 2021-2025. A timely and generous grant from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (NZ MFAT) channelled through TINZ from July 2019 to March 2020, enabled CLCT Integrity Fiji to prepare all its Policies, Plans, Reports, Manuals and Tool Kits. This good governance process is a prerequisite to CLCT-IF’s application for accreditation as a TI Chapter in Fiji.
Transparency International has acquired the services of Tebutt Research, a highly regarded polling company, to undertake the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) Survey in Fiji. CLCT-IF has made constructive inputs into the survey. The GCB will also be rolled out in other Pacific countries.
CLCT-IF received a grant of EUR 15.000 (NZ$ 26,600 approx.) for the August to December 2020 period from Transparency International secretariat under the TI IPP STRONGG PROGRAMME. The programme objective to "Actively partner with dynamic state and non-state agencies to increase our impact on Anti-Corruption Initiatives", has led to an exciting partnership with the Department of Ethics and Governance of the Faculty of Humanities of the Fiji National University and the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC). We have been asked to develop an anti-corruption massive open online course (MOOC). There has also been a request for our Youths For Integrity Initiative to be rolled out to the 500 trainee teachers at their Lautoka Campus.
On September 24, we had a Zoom meeting with TINZ CEO, Julie Haggie, and Mary Jane Kivalu, Project Manager of the TINZ project focussing on anti-corruption networking with South Pacific communities in New Zealand and beyond.
We recently published Procurement Processes in Fiji and Strategies for Curbing Corruption to the Integrity Fiji website.
With support from TINZ and Transparency International, CLCT Integrity Fiji has been able to continue and strengthen its networking and advocacy work in anti-corruption.
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CLCT Integrity Fiji including Joseph Veramu, Exec Director, pictured with Mr Narendra Prasad, the Director of Finance, Prof. James Pounder, the Pro Vice Chancellor Teaching and Learning, Professor Unaisi Nabobo-Baba, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Prof Nii-k Plange, the Head of the Interdisciplinary Climate Change Unit of the Fiji National University.[/caption
