The alleged tuna fishery bribery scam on the Fiji Islands could have well extended to other ministries of government. At present, the Fisheries Minister and his three senior officials are under the spotlight after being implicated for allegedly receiving bribes from Asian fishing companies in return for long line tuna licenses.
However, a signed testimony obtained by bula 100fm news has revealed that an official at the Finance and Commerce Ministries is also allegedly to have been bribed by a locally based Asian fishing company-which is already in the middle of the controversy over alleged bribes to the Fisheries Ministry in return for fishing licenses.
The testimony explained that a woman at the Finance Ministry was paid 2 thousand 5 hundred dollars to facilitate the Asian fishing company's application for extension to its fish factory. The woman got the Minister's clearance on the factory extension a day after she was handed cash cheque.
The woman at the Commerce Ministry was also allegedly received a second bribe of $1500 from the company to facilitate its application for the same factory extension in getting the clearance from the Ministry of Commerce. According to the testimony the two women were issued cheque's bearing the Asian fishing company name.