Litia Qionibaravi
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Adi Litia Qionibaravi is a Fijian chief and civil servant, who served for more than thirty years in the Fijian Affairs Ministry before being appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Fijian Affairs Board (FAB) on 17 June 2005 [1]. In this capacity, she oversaw the work of the country's fourteen Provincial Councils. [2], the Fijian Affairs scholarship unit, and the Secretariat of the Great Council of Chiefs.
[edit] Dismissal
The appointment was supposed to be for five years, but 13 December 2006, she was dismissed by the military junta that had seized power on 5 December [3]; the Military cited her alleged unwillingness to cooperate with the interim administration. Fiji Live reported that three armed soldiers had evicted her from her office in the building of the Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB).
Fiji Television reported on 24 December, however, that she had refused to accept her dismissal. Ratu Ovini Bokini, Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs supported her stance, claiming that only the FAB was empowered to terminate her contract. [4] She continued to work from an improvised office in the Great Council of Chiefs Secretariat [5], in defiance of the regime, which appointed Ratu Meli Bainimarama, brother of Military Commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama, in her stead. Commodore Bainimarama reacted angrily on 17 December, with Fiji Live quoting him as saying that the stance of the Great Council of Chiefs in refusing to recognize Qionibaravi's dismissal was indicative of their noncooperation with the Military regime.
The Fijian Affairs Board formalized the termination of Qionibaravi's contract on 20 January 2007. The newly appointed board - consisting of five five interim Cabinet Ministers and chaired by Ratu Epeli Ganilau, the Interim Minister for Fijian Affairs formally dismissed her at an emergency meeting called "to regularize the issue of Adi Litia," in Ganilau's words. [6]
[edit] Corruption allegations
On 22 December, Commodore Bainimarama was quoted in Fiji Village as accusing Qionibaravi of having misused government funds to buy a personal vehicle and to pay the two workers renovating her house in Ma'afu Street, Suva.[7] On 23 December, Qionibaravi replied that she was "shocked" to hear the allegations, but refused to comment further.[8] On 23 December, however, she held a press conference and angrily denied the allegations, saying that she owned no house in Ma'afu Street; she had an FAB office there, she said. The car had been purchased with a loan approved by her superior, the Permanent Secretary for Fijian Affairs, the Fiji Times quoted her as saying.[9]
[edit] Personal life
According to the Fiji Sun (14 December 2006), Qionibaravi hails from Ucunivanua in Verata, Tailevu Province.
