The Attorney General's removal of Australian Gary Sweeney as chairman of the Commerce Commission has produced the usual media speculation, and the usual retort from the Interim Government. Sweeney says Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had no power to dismiss him except for "misbehaviour, incompetence, incapacity or failure to comply with the obligations not to participate in a decision in which the member had a pecuniary interest." The A-G confirmed that Sweeney was not removed because of non-performance as speculated by some media organisations. He said there were "a number of issues before the Commission that needed to be addressed ."[With the A-G so reticent to reveal reasons for the dismissal, the media had little choice: speculate or say nothing.]
The media speculates his removal was related to resumed investigations into whether Vodafone was trying to preserve its market dominance by restricting the introduction of a new TFL wireless service. Sayed-Khaiyum said the Commission's job is to liberalize the market and act with its mandate and obtain "better utilisation of tax payer’s money." [This infers Sweeney held a different view on "liberalization."]
He expressed disappointment with some media reports on Sweeny’s removal, and warned/told/advised (it is not clear which) the media "not to speculate on issues that do not exist in the country ... [They] should focus their reporting on ensuring stability in the market." Inevitably, the media interpreted these remarks as an attempt to restrict "media freedom." The new Commission chairman is economist Dr Mahendra Reddy. [Condensed from Fiji Times. 3 March 2009.]
No comments:
Post a Comment