Tunidau: Not enough Maritime enforcement officers available
The number of Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji enforcement officers based around the country are still insufficient.
This was revealed by the authority’s chief executive officer, John Tunidau, while making submissions before the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament yesterday.
Opposition MP, Aseri Radrodro, raised queries about the number of enforcement officers the authority had.
Mr Tunidau said: “We have about 24 enforcement officers. This is not sufficient looking at 320 islands and the hundred plus inhabited islands.”
He also said they signed an agreement with the Fiji Police Force to retrain Police officers as an enforcement arm. He also confirmed plans were in the pipeline to sign an agreement with the Fiji Navy as an enforcement arm because of the insufficient resources the authority also faced.
Mr Tunidau also made the committee aware that there was no enforcement officer from the authority in Kadavu at the moment.
However, he said they are considering having an enforcement officer on the island.
Mr Tunidau said enforcement officers were only based at the major ports and jetties around the country.
Edited by Jonathan Bryce
