The iTaukei landowners are set to receive the highest payout in lease money this year.

iTaukei Land Trust Board general manager Alipate Qetaki said they were on target to pay the landowners a record figure.

He said it would exceed $51,927,128 in land rent income that landowners got last year.

He said up to last month $43.5 million had been paid to landowners. For the same period last year the figure was $34.8 million.

iTaukei communally own 87 per cent of Fiiji’s total land mass.

Mr Qetaki said the achievement was one of the outcomes of the rolling strategic plan that was launched in 2009.

“It also incorporates the expectations and views of the board chairman and Minister for iTaukei Affairs, members of the board of trustees, senior managers and other stakeholders, ” Mr Qetaki said.

“It is also shaped by the outcomes and recommendations of the Evaluation Reports for 2012 and 2013 of the Fiji Business Excellence Award Framework (Baldbridge Business Excellence Model).”

Today, Mr Qetaki serves out his last day of his second three-year contracts. On his future, he said: “I have a few options.”

Looking back over the past six years, he said “to say that there were a lot of challenges is an understatement.”

“However, there were also a lot of opportunities and strengths that were identified, seized and harnessed.

“My executive management team with the support of the TLTB staff and guidance and direction from the board of trustees was able to achieve a lot and move TLTB forward in one of the most testing and delicate periods of TLTB’s history.

“We embraced the Land Reforms introduced by the Government and facilitated Government’s land policies for the greater benefit of the landowners, tenants and the nation.

“In doing so executive management remained anchored on the Board’s statutory functions and duties and on its trustee role for the iTaukei landowners.”

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