Five former Officers of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) have been charged by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) for corruption-related Offences.

𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐮𝐯𝐨𝐮, 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐓𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐥𝐞, 𝐀𝐝𝐢 𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐚 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢, 𝐀𝐝𝐢 𝐀𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐢 𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐛𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐞𝐦𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐮 appeared at the Nasinu Magistrates Court yesterday (27/6/2023) on charges of 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐲 (𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟏𝟓𝟔 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐲 (𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝟒 (𝟏) 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟒 (𝟐) 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐀𝐜𝐭.

The charges against the five former Officers of LTA, stem from a scam that was perpetuated by them and involved the fraudulent conversion of two-hundred and thirty-four (234) overseas driver’s licenses to local Fiji driver’s licenses from 2020 to early 2022.

Of these 234 licenses, two-hundred and thirty-one (231) licenses were fake which were forged to give the appearance they were issued from issuing authorities from various countries including Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea.

The forging of the foreign driver’s licenses was done in order to meet the requirements by the Land Transport Authority that an applicant have a valid foreign driver’s license for such a license to be converted to full and valid Fijian driver’s licenses.

Of the five Accused persons who were charged and produced in Court yesterday, the main suspect behind the scam was Ponipate Seuvou who is alleged to have forged overseas licenses from the 231 applicants to make it seem as if all the applicants had been residing overseas and held dual issued driver’s licenses from those international countries.

Furthermore, it is alleged that Seuvou charged the 231 applicants as well as three (3) others who had genuine international licenses fees to facilitate their applications to LTA which allowed the applicants to be issued with Fijian driver’s licenses.

Several of the applicants who are currently residing overseas through the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) were also charged up to $750 per application by Seuvou to facilitate their local Fijian driver’s licenses. The fees that Seuvou purported to charge included costs for LTA fees, freight costs if the applicant was residing overseas, bribes for LTA Customer Service Officers whom Seuvou was colluding with to process the local driver’s licenses and payment for his “services.”

During the course of the investigation, it was ascertained that a few of the applicants who used Seuvou’s services have never been to the countries that Seuvou forged their purported overseas licenses from or had never been overseas at all.

Seuvou received a total of $128,322.79 from the 234 persons who applied for their local licenses. It is further alleged that he paid out a total of $26,812.77 as bribes to the other accused persons, as well as one suspect who has fled the country, in order to have the local drivers’ licenses unlawfully processed and issued.

FICAC Senior State Counsel Laite Bokini-Ratu informed the Court that the first phase of disclosures has been served to the five accused.

Resident Magistrate Savou granted a non-cash bail of $1000 for each of the accused and ordered them not to re-offend whilst on bail.

Ponipate Seuvou, Sera Tulele, Adi Tabusiga Ligairi, Adi Akisi Duruibou and Cema Sau were also ordered not to interfere with State witnesses, not to change their residential addresses without first informing the Court and to surrender all travel documents to the Court.

Ponipate Seuvou has been ordered to report to the Valelevu Police Station once a month commencing from 30 July 2023.

Adi Akisi Duruibou and Cema Sau have been ordered to report to the Valelevu Police Station once a month commencing from 28 July 2023.

Sera Tulele has been ordered to report to the FICAC Office once a month commencing from 28 July 2023.

Adi Tabusiga Ligairi has been ordered to report to the Savusavu Police Station once a month commencing from 28 July 2023.

A stop departure order has been issued against Ponipate Seuvou, Sera Tulele, Adi Tabusiga Ligairi, Adi Akisi Duruibou and Cema Sau.

The matter has been adjourned to 24 July 2023.