By Matangi Tonga court and crime reporters

Tongan Cabinet Minister 'Akosita Lavulavu (36) and her husband 'Etuate Lavulavu (62) plundered TVET grant funds for themselves in a systemic fraud that a Nuku'alofa Supreme Court judge today called, “an example of the worst sort of dishonesty.”

“The conduct of these defendants would be disgraceful in anyone, but for a member of Cabinet, and a man, who used his political connections and position to facilitate these frauds, goes beyond just criminally reprehensible,” said Mr Justice N. J. Cooper in his verdict.

“This is an example of the worst sort of dishonesty; people who should be working earnestly for constituents but use their position, connections and influence to steal from a fund for the education of children of this Kingdom and then in front of me in court, twist the evidence and lean on witnesses to try extricate themselves,” he said in a 126 page Rulings and Judgment released today.

“It is a particularly egregious aspect of this case that both defendants have tried to corrupt the trial process by buying off at least one [of the] witnesses,” Mr Justice Cooper said.

Guilty on 3 counts of false pretences

The Lavulavu couple (who married in 2009) were charged on a joint indictment and found guilty on all three counts of obtaining money by false pretences, from the Ministry of Education and Training.

On 29 May 2014, 18 November 2014 and 29 June 2015 they applied for funds from the Technical Vocational Educational Training Grant (TVET) with a false representation of the number of students that attended the 'Unuaki 'o Tonga Royal Institute (UTRI).

The Ministry of Education relied on that false information and paid the money, which amounted to $558,600.

On examination of the evidence the judge said, “I can be sure that $536,940 was fraudulently obtained.”

The case came to light during a routine audit of the UTRI in 2015. UTRI had submitted financial statements to the Ministry of Education who in turn passed them on to the office of the Auditor General. Discrepancies found by audit staff were referred Sefita Tangi the Auditor General. The team had finished the audit of another institution and they noticed some of those students were stated as enrolled at UTRI. Auditors met the students who confirmed they were not students of UTRI. A further investigation found irregularities which led to audit field work in 2016.

One irregularity was the names of 286 people who had never appled to join UTRI but had their details put on application forms.

These supposed students' details had been obtained by various means, including:

• What had purported to be a Tonga Post survey; this at a time that Mr Lavulavu was the director of Tonga Post;
• Completing a survey on villages;
• People who had attended a training course held at Ministry of Infrastructure, this at the time that Mr Lavulavu was the Minister with portfolio;
• Applications completed in town by 'Alisi and or Mele Tovi;
• People who had completed forms at Uata Shipping who had been told those forms were applications for them to work with UTRI on practical courses;
• People enrolled in the Miss Heilala beauty pageant.

There were also 35 names of people who did not exist, and many more irregularities that bolstered the numbers.

The audit concluded that if those names whose fees were not properly paid were included in the TVET grant application [for about $600 subsidy per student] then the grant had wrongly been applied for, and only 19 out of 942 were eligible

In this together

The applications for the grants were made in the name of 'Akosita Lavulavu the Director. While 'Etuate Lavulavu was the President of UTRI at all relevant times.

“Claims that Mr Lavulavu was not as responsible for the applications as his wife are just silly” said the judge.

“They were in this together, just as they ran the school together....What happened to the money on receipt and that they disposed of it makes this glaringly obvious.”

The grants were paid into the bank accounts that were controlled by both defendants.

The judge said, looking at the TVET grant applications and reading those in conjunction with the receipts for those terms and bearing in mind UTRI's stated policy that less than 5% of students actually paid fees, “then it is a stark fact that 95% of the claim for the TVET grants were false.”

The judge said he had been persuaded on the evidence that both knew of the deliberate inaccuracy of the claims; the falsity of the student lists and the receipts.

“Is ordering staff to falsifying receipts for sums of cash never paid to show to a representative of the Ministry of Education to obtain grant money dishonest by the standards of ordinary people?

“Yes it is, one can have no doubt about that,” he stated.

School lacked basic resources

The judgment also pointed out that the funds did not go to the school, which did not even have enough water for the children.

“That Lopeti Filo, the man who taught the Hospitality and Tourism had never heard of the TVET grant, for his very own course, is telling.

“Both these defendants plainly plundered those funds; there can be no doubt that it did not go on the school or the teachers.

“As 'Emeline Latu, who worked at UTRJ observed how could there be a grant when she knew that basic resources like water was not properly provided for the children?

“Even their own audit for 2013 found the toilets were unhygienic and desks and tables broken,” the judge stated.

Witnesses lied to the court

The judgment noted that a witness for the defence lied to the court

“That Miss Nasilai was lying on behalf of the defendants was clear when she gave her evidence ... plainly both Mr Lavulavu and Miss Nasilai had rehearsed what she was to say in answer to questions put to her by him; he had made an error in what he taught her so she repeated that same incorrect version to me in court.

“Having heard her evidence, especially finding out that she deliberately misled the court as to her employment; that she stated to me under oath she was a clerk in the Ministry of Infrastructure; when in fact she is Mrs. Lavulavu's Personal Assistant.Simply put, Miss Nasilai perjured herself,” the judge stated.

Another witness Miss Tovi “was forced to admit some truths but sought to spin them in a dishonest way”

He said Muna Nasilai and Simione Tahi, were examples of witnesses determined to lie to the court for both Mr and Mrs Lavulavu.

“That speaks ill of them and worse of the characters of the defendants.

“Muna Nasilai was plainly instrumental in the dishonest bidding of both defendants in the recruitments; the enrolment lists, and the receipts, she appears to be as culpable as these defendants from what I have seen.

“I am quite sure she was bought off by Mrs Lavulavu (and her husband) and given a job in the Ministry of infrastructure where Mrs Lavulavu had become a Minister in October 2019.”

A sham

“One can not but conclude, from the start, these defendants put others into the process to try and shield themselves should this moment ever arrive; so they could claim ignorance.

“They do so now, before me, but it is a sham.”

Mr Justice Cooper said that they did and how they did it had been revealed through the trial process and the careful analysis of the witnesses and evidence.

“On a logical and proper analysis of the admissible evidence I find the indictment is a true bill as against both defendants on all counts. They are both guilty on all counts.”

The couple will be sentenced on July 2.

Counsel for the Prosecution were Mr Lutui, DPP and Mr 'Aho.

Mr Edwards started the trial representing both defendants. On April 26 Mr. Lavulavu represented himself.

Ref. Nuku'alofa Supreme Court CR 173 & 174 of 2018

Verdict - CR 173 & CR 174-2021.pdf [2]