Fiji's ex-anti-corruption head to fight 'destroyed career' after damning inquiry

RNZ News

08-07-2025

Ashton-Lewis, 75, was paid $AU2000 a day during the nine week hearing, which involved 35 witnesses . It took a total of six months to go through the material.
Photo:
RNZ Pacific / Fiji Government / FICAC
The former head of Fiji's anti-corruption agency may move to have the damning Commission of Inquiry report into her appointment quashed.
Barbara Malimali - described as "universally corrupt" by the commissioner of the inquiry - was suspended by Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on 29 May.
Her lawyer Tanya Waqanika told
Pacific Waves
that Justice David Ashton-Lewis'
public remarks
has destroyed Malimali's legal career.
Rabuka released a
redacted copy
of the final report on the government's website last Monday, but leaked copies have been circulating for weeks.
Justice Ashton-Lewis found that six members of government and four lawyers lied under oath, obstructed justice and perverted the course of justice.
"I've done my job, the rest is up to up to Sitiveni Rabuka to act," he said.
Justice Ashton-Lewis said the edited version cuts out almost an entire chapter of adverse findings against individuals, in a bid not to prevent or bias any subsequent police investigations.
He claims it exposed what he called a systemic failure of integrity at the highest levels of Fiji's governance and justice systems.
Ashton-Lewis said Malimali's appointment to the role last September was legally invalid, ethically reprehensible and procedurally corrupted.
"She was a pawn in the hands of devious members of government, who wanted any allegations against them or other government members thrown out," he told RNZ Pacific.
Waqanika said Ashton-Lewis' allegations in the report are merely his "narrative" and the real truth lies in the court transcripts.
She claims his public comments destroyed Malimali's reputation.
"He made a defamatory and derogatory comment in a podcast and called her universally corrupt," Waqanika said.
"It's an issue of clearing her name, she has has built up her legal career over 20 years and that statement alone has pretty much destroyed her career."
Ashton-Lewis said the evidence from cross-examination of Malimali and from the many who spoke against her showed she was "universally corrupt".
The main findings of the inquiry include:
Malimali has instructed Waqanika to write to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) to complain about the Commissioner on the grounds of "misbehaviour".
According to Ashton-Lewis, Malimali was a pawn in the hands of devious members of government.
Photo:
X/Fiji Women
However, she was vague about the details, saying "misbehaviour" was a broad term but might include his "lack of credentials".
Waqanika also claimed the inquiry went outside its terms of reference and believes other lawyers involved in the investigation will try to have the report thrown out on this basis.
Ashton-Lewis, 75, was paid $AU2000 a day during the nine week hearing, which involved 35 witnesses . It took a total of six months to go through the material.
He handed the the 681-page report to Rabuka and President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu on 6 May, and said the terms of reference were strictly followed.
"The terms of reference were not only about Mallmali's appointment, they include the question of whether there was any undue interference in her appointment and I found there was," he said.
"We did our job correctly. They (Malimali and Waqanika) can yell as loud as they want, but I think any moves to have the report quashed will be lengthy, costly and unsuccessful.".
Ashton-Lewis said there were four attempts during the inquiry to shut it down, including a claim that it breached the constitution.
"We were appointed under the Commission of Inquiries Act, not the Constitution, so that was erroneous."
Ashton-Lewis said there were "discriminatory" attacks, suggesting that as foreigners they had no right to question Malimali.
Waqanika complained to the Prime Minister and the President, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, that Ashton-Lewis, an Australian, was "white".
She also questioned the suitability of barrister Janet Mason, his assistant. Ms Mason is a Fijian citizen who is part iTaukei and lives in Wellington.
"I wasn't expecting that kind of racism, I've never experienced that in all my years in the High Court," he said.
Waqanika claimed there was a lack of accountability and transparency during the inquiry, with only one commissioner and a media ban in place.
"Why wasn't it open to the public and the media? The optics for the coalition government are not good, especially with the general elections next year."
Ashton-Lewis said he was hand-picked by the Prime Minister.
"He (Rabuka) set this investigation up and it was his decision to have only one judge. He chose me because he wanted someone outside of Fiji who was not obligated to any tribal or cultural group."
"He knew there were crocodiles in the pond and he wanted them found", he said.
Meanwhile the anti-corruption agency is now investigating one of the deputy prime ministers, Manoa Kamikamica, for perjury.
Investigators from the anti-corruption agency issued a search warrant on Thursday and Kamikamica's cellphone was seized.
He told
The Fiji Times
that he assumed it was to do with the inquiry and would like to set the record straight
.
"There are some big gaps in that report, which is quite disappointing, they make allegations without any factual evidence," said Kamikamica, who is also the Minister for Trade.
"There are issues with the report, it's a very one-sided interpretation of facts, if you want to call them facts. As the commissioner said, its all hearsay on hearsay, are we now starting to accuse people based on rumour and innuendo?"
However, Ashton-Lewis said did not admit "hearsay on hearsay".
"I did not, I only ever made my findings on the basis of clear, direct oral evidence from witnesses," he said.
During the inquiry a former cabinet minister, Kalaveti Ravu, described Kamikamica as a "wannabe Prime Minister."
When RNZ Pacific questioned the deputy prime minister recently about Ravu's comment, he replied "stop bothering me".
Ravu was accused by the agency of interfering in a ministerial investigation into the suspected illegal trade of a banned species of beche-de mer (sea cucumbers).
However he was acquitted in the Suva Magistrates Court in February.
Fiji's opposition leader Inia Seruiratu last week demanded Ratu Naiqama suspend the Chief Justice Salesi Temo.
Seruiratu told
FijiLive
a tribunal should be set up to investigate Justice Temo's conduct.
"The Attorney-General (Graham Leung) has already been removed, a necessary first step, but not the final one. One cannot pull the matchstick and leave the fuel untouched," he said.
"Three of the country's highest legal officers remain in place, their credibility compromised, their accountability unresolved. This is not a call for vengeance, its a call for justice."
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka sacked Leung on 30 May after a version of the report was leaked to the public.
Sitiveni Rabuka said in a government statement that inquiry's findings had made it "evident" that Leung's position in his Cabinet was now "untenable."
Leung last week slammed the report.
He
told
local media that the report's findings were "the trumph of media prattle and lazy legal guesswork".
"There's an allegation that I conspired with others to appoint Malimali's appointment. I reject that categorically," Leung said.
But Ashton-Lewis replied: "I never said he conspired with anyone, Graham Leung simply failed to carry out his job as Attorney General during the appointment."
"Both Leung and Temo knew Malimali was being investigated for abuse of office, but they failed to stop her appointment.
He said they should have investigated further, but did not.
Charlie Charters, whose mother-in-law was the son of the late former opposition MP (SOLDEPA) Adi Mere Samisoni, said in a blog there was "no need to import a fancy white man" to head the hearing.
"We look like real
kaicolo
(highland) jungle bunnies, waiting to be told the good and the bad among us, by someone who is happy to laugh in private at our primitive bow-and-arrow ways," he wrote.
"It's hard not to reflect on how this whole fiasco has diminished Fiji," he wrote.
Ashton-Lewis laughed, saying he was known for his stylish three-piece suits.