Pacific

With constitution released, Fiji leaders to end pay secrecy

13:44 pm on 26 August 2013

The Fiji regime leaders are expected to reveal their salaries after last week's release of their new constitution.

Political parties have repeatedly called for the public disclosure of the top leaders' taxpayer-funded pays.

They have said the regime leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, receives more than 700,000 US dollars a year, but the regime has said the figure is wrong.

In January, the attorney-general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, said he and the interim prime minister were not officials of a political party and therefore not obliged to divulge their pay.

In April however, he said he would disclose his pay in July.

In July, he said their pay would be made public after the constitution was finalised.

Commodore Bainimarama has run the government since January 2007 - one month after he carried out a coup, which briefly installed Jona Senilagakali as interim prime minister.