Acting Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Tudravu confirms that the contributions towards the farewell ceremony for former Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong that will be held in Labasa are voluntary and the Ministry of Health is not forcing any of its members to use their money towards this occasion.
Dr Tudravu says they are not forcing anybody to cover any cost and if they don't contribute, that's not a problem.
Dr Tudravu says the function was meant to be an opportunity for them to take a high-level farewell function, which they often do for senior officers in the Ministry to the Northern Division.
He says these kinds of functions were always held in the Central Division and the Northern Division was always left out.
The Acting Permanent Secretary says in this situation they have decided that it happens in the North since it coincides with one of their programs that they have discussed since last year.
He says the only use of taxpayers’ funds is on the teams of senior officers that are out in the rural areas with the Ministry’s Divisional teams in the North, which they discussed last year.
Dr Tudravu says these senior officers will be going out and spending time in the rural areas with their divisional teams doing risk programs and hoping the outcome that they are looking for is at operational levels, and the implementation obstacles that they are facing would be ironed out.
He further says any bottlenecks that these divisional officers face as well will be clarified and hopefully cleared so that there can be a smoother implementation of the Ministry’s program, but also most importantly, there needs to be prudent utilization of their resources.
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