National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad says the total control and micro-management of municipal councils by the Bainimarama and FijiFirst Governments for the last 13 years is largely responsible for the financial mess of most town and city councils.
He has stated this following confirmation by the Minister for Local Government Premila Kumar that there is $62.8 million in unpaid rates.
Prasad says reports in the media show the shocking state of local government finances.
He says at the end of 2018, Fiji’s city and town councils were owed $31 million and by the end of 2021, this amount had doubled to more than $62 million.
Prasad says whenever the opposition says something he does not like, the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama says they are lies.
The NFP Leader says Bainimarama cannot deny these figures as they have come from his own Minister for Local Government.
He says services in some major urban areas are in a state of collapse and corruption and fraud probes have been announced in at least five different town councils.
Prasad adds for 15 years, the FijiFirst Government has refused to allow elected, accountable town and city councils and this is only because of politics as the government fears opposition parties of winning local government elections.
The NFP Leader says their policy is to give local government back to the people to ensure they, in partnership with the national government, can work to give to the people in towns and cities the services that they need.
We have sought comments from Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama and Minister for Local Government, Premila Kumar.
They are yet to respond.
However, while speaking in parliament in 2019, Kumar had stated that it is essential to have informed discussions on the subject of municipal elections as there was a troubled history of Fiji’s Municipal Councils.
Kumar says municipal councils had a history rife with scandals, corruption, squandering of ratepayers’ money, mismanagement and malpractice which has been ended by this government.
She had also questioned what the elected councillors did for Municipal Councils from 1972 to 2008.
The Minister for Local Government had then told parliamentarians that under elected councillors, corruption and mismanagement had risen to such extreme levels that on six separate occasions, municipal councils had to be dissolved entirely.
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