Theft of current Fiji pensioners funds by reforms made to the Fiji National Provident Fund were essential to avoid bankruptcy, says Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, omitting to make any mention of the almost three billion dollars owed to the Fund by government, or the decrees his government put in place to stop pensioners taking their claims to court.

Speaking at the Attorney Generals conference in Natadola, Bainimarama said they have ensured the continuity of FNPF for you and your children’s benefit and if they had not instituted the reforms FNPF would have gone bankrupt by 2052. “So for example, if you are 25-years old now, in 40 years time, there would not have been any money in the FNPF for your pension, even though you would have contributed towards it for your entire working life,” said Bainimarama. Bainimarama said they would have betrayed all Fijians who had expected to retire with dignity if the reforms were not implemented. He said these significant reforms have been commended by The International Social Security Organisation.

He also said the topics selected for the conference will help stimulate discussion on a number of key areas of reform and among these are inter-country adoption of children, land registration systems, new company laws, the Independent Legal Services Commission, court procedures and practices and, of course, constitution and constitutionalism.