Govt watchdog calls for Fiji prisons expansion

June 07, 2009 10:06:53 AM

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The Public Accounts Committee has called on the Fiji Government to expand the country’s prison facilities to cater for the growing number of inmates.

It made this call in its 13th report of the 66 outstanding audit reports of 2005 and 2006, which are being currently scrutinised.

The audit report has been forwarded to the Fiji President’s Office.

In its report, the committee raised the issue of overcrowding in some of the prisons, saying the matter was beyond the ambit of the department as prisons had no control over the numbers of offenders who were imprisoned by Fiji courts.

“Though some upgrading had been done in some of the prisons to avoid overcrowding, Government needed to build additional facilities to accommodate the growing number of offenders who were being sentenced to prison,” the committee said.

The committee also called for a review of the remand rate to reflect the current rate of living standard.

“For those awaiting trial and confined to cell on remand, the Prisons Department was paid at the rate of only one dollar a day,” it reported.

“The rate was archaic and outdated.”

Meanwhile, the committee also revealed that the department had breached the supplies and services instruction where goods were being ordered from non-contracted suppliers without prior approval by the controller of supplies.

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