The majority of civil servants in the Northern Division are dysfunctional, too old, have been in the system too long and must be transferred.

Former Member of Parliament and bus proprietor Parmod Chand made these claims during the National Budget Consultation at Labasa College last Saturday.

He requested the Minister for Finance Biman Prasad for an investigation to be conducted on Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) and Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) particularly in the Northern Division.

He claimed that in the North there were two main contractors who hire sub-contractors to get FRA’s work done.

“When you call WAF office, there are hardly any senior officers around and this is one of the reasons we have so many water problems,” Mr Chand said.

“When FRA heard that a minister is coming like you holding consultations at Tabia Sanatan College, we were told that they cut grass along the road and drains in Tabia.”

He further claimed that when they requested fixing of roads or clearing drains in rural areas so that bus service could be provided, they made numerous excuses.

“Government departments need to be told that they need to have a performance management system and need to be taken to task if the job is not done,” he said.

“Many are just sitting down in their offices with applications sent by people requesting for essential services for too long.”

Future Plans
Mr Prasad said his ministry was planning to bring back divisional planning officers like how they used to have before working closely with district officers and ministries.

“We want good planning officers and an implementation and monitoring team within the ministry,” he said.

“The money allocation is there, but things don’t happen partly because of the implementation.”

He said permanent secretaries should get to the ground and make sure it was implemented.

“As for roads, drains and cutting of grass along the roads, I have been saying it before, we are going to bring back PWD,” he said.

“In the past when PWD was there, it used to look after all these works, and we had no issues.”

Story by: shratikan@fijisun.com.fj