New FRA board appointed

New board of directors have been appointed for the Fiji Roads Authority for a three-year term.

The incoming board of directors are Atunaisa Nayago (Chairman), Lui Naisara, Bhupendra Solanki, Alipate Naiorosui and Niko Buke.

FRA says the appointment process was through an extensive exercise and the appointees represent diverse backgrounds, bringing with them a wealth of knowledge, skills, and extensive experience in engineering, law, governance, business, and industry expertise.

The FRA, under the board of directors, is responsible for maintaining, planning, and delivering Fiji’s road network of roads, bridges, jetties, streetlights, and traffic signals.

Nayago is a civil engineer by profession, and has 37 years of experience in the field of project management, road engineering planning, design, and construction including other civil engineering infrastructure design, construction supervision, and contract management.

Naisara is currently the Director and Principal Consultant of Naisara Investment and Consultancy Enterprise. He has 30 years of experience in the civil service and was involved in many stakeholder consultancies in Research and Policy Implementation; Strategic Planning; Financial Management including budget preparation, implementation, and monitoring, Risk Management, Human Resource Management, and Project Management including identification and monitoring.

Solanki is a lawyer by profession and was admitted to the Bar in 1999. He initially commenced employment at a private legal practice and in 2000 was appointed as a State Prosecutor with the Director of the Public Prosecutions Office.

In 2005, Solanki joined the Fiji Revenue and Customs Services (FRCS) as a Principal Legal Officer.

In 2008, he was appointed to head the Legal Division of FRCS until 2012, when he returned to private practice and is currently operating his own law firm, Solanki Lawyers.

Naiorosui has more than 25 years of experience in leading and working across the private and public sectors, having worked as the Chief Executive Officer, Housing Authority, and Yatu Lau Company Ltd.

Naiorosui currently has board membership at the HFC Bank and Lako Yani Management Pte Ltd. He is also the current trustee of the Fiji Rugby Union and is President of the RKS Old Scholars Association.

Buke has 40 years of experience in mechanical engineering, project, and business management.

He began his career as a technical assistant with the Public Works Department and rose to various senior positions including Divisional Engineer. He has also worked with the Water Authority of Fiji as Project Manager and with other private sector businesses like Total Fiji Limited as Manager Technical Services, and Gold Rock Investment Limited amongst others.