 |
 |
 |
  |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Address by Mr Filipe N. Bole, CBE, Minister for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing & Environment at the Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji, Sigatoka, at 9.30 am on Friday, 3rd October, 2008 The President of the Fiji Local Government Association, Your Worship The Lord Mayor of Suva, Cr. Ratu Peni Volavola, The Secretary of the Fiji Local Government Association, Mr Azmat Khan, Honourable Mayors, Councillors, Town Clerks, Mrs Aruna Pillay, Chairperson of the Local Government Review Committee and Members of the Review Committee, Mr Terry Parker, Regional Manager, Commonwealth Local Government Forum, Pacific Project, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with great pleasure and privilege that I am here with you this morning at the invitation of the Fiji Local Government Association to officially open your 2008 Annual Convention Meeting. It is very special to me since as your Interim Minister, this is the first time I am able to be present in your midst all at once. Let me thank the President of the Association, His Worship the Mayor of Suva, Councillor Ratu Peni Volavola for his kind words of welcome. Also, let me extend to you, my deep appreciation for the Fijian ceremony of welcome ‘sevusevu’ which you have just performed. The major task that I have been assigned to do as your Minister for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, is to monitor the performance of municipalities and deliver an improved system of local government. I urge you and seek your cooperation that we work together to achieve this objective. We have the Local Government Act which provides the framework to achieve this objective. In the last Parliament, certain crucial amendments of the Act were made to improve how you operate as municipal councils as well as opening the door to take advantage of economic opportunities that might come your way as the entity responsible for the development of your municipality. The Ministry is working closely with you on the preparation of guidelines for the implementation of the provisions of these amendments. This is to ensure that a system is in place to facilitate the practising of good governance. In this regard, I seek your cooperation to work closely with us. Since I took over as your Minister, I have been taking a very close look at how you carry out your functions as Councils. Following my recent visits to your various Councils, I have noted with concern how rates are being collected, in particular the arrears of rates outstanding from your ratepayers. Rates collection is probably the most fundamental duty of any municipality and is the key to the success of any council, and in my view, must be given the top priority in your deliverables. Rates are the major source of revenue of any municipality and as I have emphasized in the brief meetings I have had with you, every effort should be made to collect whatever is due. In this respect I’d expect each municipal council to be proactive and come up with creative means of collecting rates due to you. The Ministry will work with you to ensure that you succeed in this. While I am on the question of rates, it is my opinion that some municipalities are simply too small to be too dependent on rates for sustainable development. I won’t name the Councils but if you think you are too small to sustain yourself you should come up with your plan which we can all discuss with the view to assisting you in running your council. The object is to improve service to the people in your town. With financial management, I have noted the qualified audit opinion of the Auditor-General on the accounts of some municipalities. I draw your attention to the fact that in some municipalities a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Council had not been fully given in that particular year. Your council should now ensure that remedial measures are taken to reduce the occurrence of such qualifications in future. However, I am pleased to note that the Fiji Local Government Association has followed up on the success of the 2007 convention and taken the initiative to organize another event in 2008. Your theme of Clean Cities and Towns is most appropriate. Clean and sustainable environment is the key issue now in any development in our country as evident in the strong promotion of environmental issues in Fiji. The Environmental Act and the Litter Decree are in place to ensure that our living environment and more so our urban areas have clean cities and towns. This is very important as our cities and towns are places that people live in within local and outside an urban area as well as overseas visitors visit for business, services, shopping and other recreational activities that they offer to the public. Cities and towns should provide the amenities and create attractive features such as natural and artificial landscaping that blend in well with an urban setting within its natural environment. Tourism is the main economic activity in our country and most tourists visit or stay in our cities and towns during their stay. It is very important that our cities and towns are clean from littering, air pollution and water pollution to offer healthy environment. To achieve this, municipalities must have the right attitude and thinking in claiming ownership to the responsibility of running a clean town and city. This could even extend to include creating portable flower gardens at street corners, road intersections, bus and taxi carrier stands to add attractions. Most of our cities and towns are located along the main rivers and coastal areas in Fiji and they are often neglected and polluted. Water frontage is a very high aesthetic feature and should be considered as a big bonus in any city/town development. It does not only offer transport facilities as in our two main cities but could be used for recreational activities and offer interesting and beautiful features to our cities and towns. Let me reiterate that Councils are stewards of municipalities and Government only acts as the facilitator to your role. The maintenance of clean cities and towns is vital to the growth and sustainability of any municipality and is not the sole responsibility of one entity but requires a cross-sectoral, multilateral approach with close co-ordination between parties concerned. I am therefore indeed grateful to the initiatives now taken by FLGA to pursue this in this forum so that more ideas can be tapped to find ways in overcoming this problem. In Fiji, our cities and towns are not polluted by excessive industrial wastes. However, they are disfigured by uncollected rubbish bins, garden waste, unswept streets, clogged up drains and uncut hedges. We should look at systems, like the Chinese waste conversion system to help us keep our towns clean. I understand that your Association through a White Paper has taken the initiative to prepare a strategy for road maintenance and upgrading within your municipalities. The strategy involves undertaking investigation and research towards better road making technology and maintenance making the work more economical and sustainable for your councils. On its part the Ministry has made submission to the Ministry of Finance in its 2009 Budget for financial assistance, under the Public Sector Investment Programme, towards road upgrading and maintenance in your respective municipalities. Good roads reflect well on any municipality and this has so much to offer to the tourism industry which is so far still the country’s leading foreign exchange earner. Good roads are a catalyst to economic growth, as they will attract developers, businessmen and entrepreneurs for commercial undertakings in your municipalities thus generating economic growth through new business licenses, fees in your cities and towns, rates and other spill-over effects. Moreover, good roads, like other sound developments, are an incentive to ratepayers to pay their rates on time as they witness that their rates are being spent wisely on road improvements. Timely payment of rates will enable your Council to expand and engage in other commercial activities for the betterment of your municipality. I would recommend that a similar kind of initiative should be directed towards addressing public health and sanitation issues, a vital ``and equally challenging responsibility of your Councils. The implementation of the Urban Policy Action Plan (UPAP) and the Urban Growth Management Plans (UGMAP) for regional urban areas has been approved by Cabinet and a target that I have also been assigned to achieve. These plans involve a number of components. Two of them are the challenge fund and capacity building. These activities are currently being implemented by the Ministry. I also note that one of the overarching issues in the UPAP and UGMAP is the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the urban sector in Fiji. This is intended to address haphazard urban growth which is contributing to sub-optimal economic growth and continuing growth of poverty in urban areas. Through this, provision has been made to address affordable formal new housing lots subdivision to address the rapidly growing squatter and other informal settlement areas with poor housing and services within our municipalities. I also understand that your Association and your Councils were parties to the preparation of these plans. This same participatory approach will be adopted in the process of implementing the other components of these plans. May I also at this juncture acknowledge the presence of the Local Government Review/Reform Committee with its Chairperson Mrs Aruna Pillay and Members Messrs Terence Parker and Kini Marawai. In my capacity as the Interim Minister of Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment I extend to them my gratitude for the tireless effort they are currently putting into their work in order to complete this enormous task. I have had two preliminary meetings with the Committee, and I am looking forward to the completion of this exercise. The Committee’s proposals and recommendations will no doubt pave the way for a better system of local governance throughout our municipalities. I also wish to mention that the Ministry of Local Government now has a Permanent Secretary in Mr Ram Chandar. He comes to us from the Ministry of Education where he has been the Deputy Permanent Secretary of Education (Professional). He is a man of integrity and has had long and wide experience in Government. We can look forward to significant and important progress in Local Government during his tenure. I wish you a fruitful and successful meeting in these two days and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. With these words, it is my pleasure to declare the Convention open. Vinaka Vakalevu and Thank You. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
 |
     |
