Motion filed calling on 4 Fiji Rugby Union board members to stand down

The Suva Rugby Union claims a “massive loss” is behind its decision to file a motion calling for four of the Fiji Rugby Union’s current board members to step down or resign.

SRU secretary Nemani Tuifagalele told the FijiTimes the motion will be tabled at the FRU’s annual general meeting on April 29.

Tuifagalele said: “One of the motions is that we have asked the four board members to either step down or resign from their posts. We have five members on the board right now and one of them includes the PM’s nominee. Excluding the PM’s nominee, we want the other four to step down.

“One of the main reasons is looking at the management of the finances at FRU. We have been told, reliably, that the audited reports show a massive loss.

“With this board mending the operations of the FRU, we feel this is not the right group of people to do so.If you look at our nominations, we are now trying to get in people who not only have the profession, the background but people who have worked on the ground.

“We have seen over the years the board members have hardly associated themselves with rugby. We want to bring people with the qualifications and at the same time who have had the experience from the ground.

“We also want to have a well-represented group of people there. Not only from one or two particular unions. Over the years it has been Suva all along. We want to spread that out to the other unions. That’s basically what we will try and do come April 29.”

The Suva-based lawyer said if the motion was not passed, the plan was to file a vote of no confidence against the present board.“The constitution also provides for another SGM to be convened and if we can have 20 of the 26 unions to agree. All unions will be present at the AGM and we can always convene a SGM to get them out.

“So somehow or another we can propose a vote of no confidence through an SGM using the provisions of the constitution.”

The present FRU board members include Trevor Nainoca, Daniel Whippy, Muni Ratna and Biu Colati.

Simione Valenitabua is also a board member who was Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s nominee to FRU.

Tuifagalele says the constitution allows the non-compliant members to vote in a vote of no-confidence proposal.

Suva has also proposed names for the four positions on the board including the president’s position.