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Deficiency in managing working contracts: Kumar

May 15, 2019 7:38 am

Local Government Minister Premila Kumar has acknowledged that there are deficiencies in the capacity of Municipal Councils to manage working contracts.

Kumar highlighted this while debating on the report of the Public Accounts Committee in parliament yesterday.

She says the Ministry has taken actions to rectify the issue and all councils have been instructed to build staff capacity in regards to managing contracts.

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“My Ministry in 2017 developed and disseminated a standard policy guideline for all municipal councils, just to ensure transparent processes and ethical practices are used when scrutinizing contractors.”

Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says there are issues within the municipal councils but these issues did not start with the FijiFirst government as they are legacy issues.

“I can pick out numerous reports of some of the people who are advising you who actually were in the Public Accounts Committee reports previously as deputy permanent secretaries, when the Ministry of Agriculture decided to get people into fish farming, they have their own farms updated while they were permanent secretaries they should know that, the leader of the opposition should know this because he was the Prime Minister then.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says it is vital to apply the principal of Open Merit Recruiting System into every municipal councils so that that right people are recruited for the right job.