Waivunia landowners from the province of Cakaudrove are the only people who have paid Government back on the buy-back land scheme.

Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources Mereseini Vuniwaqa confirmed there were 23 parcels of buy-back lands that have been bought by Government.

It is understood that all the land that were part of the buy-back scheme are gradually being deposited into the Land Bank, which is part of this Government’s land reform initiative.

These land will be leased to investors. The lease monies will help off-set the cost of the land.

Once the full cost of the land has been recovered by Government, the land will automatically revert to the traditional landowners.

“There are 23 parcels of buy-back lands that have been bought by Government and only one has paid back, which is Waivunia,” Mrs Vuniwaqa said.

“What happened was they were given an annual amount payable per year for a term of some 30-years and most of them have fallen back on their payments and all these parcels of land are still with us. Waivunia is the only one that has paid off and the land has been transferred to them.”

She said the initiative has been half-way successful.

“Government has bought all these properties and its there but the challenge is for landowners to actually pay Government back to get their land,” she said.

“Until it’s returned Government will look for ways to generate revenue from the piece of lands instead of leaving them like that. In some cases we have this issue of squatters on buy-back lands and a lot of news issues come into play there.”

She said they met landowners from Yaroi Village on Monday night and they don’t want the squatter settlers to leave.

“They want them to stay but basically want them to be formalised. They have acknowledged the fact they will take the land with these settlers living there which makes our work very easy.”

State lease

For State land arrears, Mrs Vuniwaqa said Government had collected $6million from January.

“I think the target was $4million per quarter but we are doing well,” she said.

“There are still arrears to collect and it was $23million when we first started with just a small task force but they are doing well. I think a lot of it has to do also with waiver of interest if you pay before June, so that one has been quite effective.

“We collect our payments every half-yearly from first January and first June just on Crown land and foreshore land.”